Intravenous theophylline rapidly decreases post-lumbar puncture headaches

When managing therapy for the post-lumbar puncture headaches (PLPHs), an efficacious, fast-acting, practical and safe method is preferred. Invasive methods have known complications and oral medications might be problematic when nausea and vomiting occurs with severe headaches. The aim of this study was to highlight the brief initial time for a remarkable decrease of PLPH pain levels after the administration of IV theophylline infusion. We observed that IV theophylline infusion has a rapid and marked effect on decreasing pain in PLPHs. At 30 min of theophylline infusion, mean VAS levels were decreased by 47.1 % and at 60 min of infusion, the decrease of pain was 61.9 %. We conclude that IV theophylline infusion is a rapidly effective, noninvasive, practical and low-cost way to treat PLPHs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to highlight both the efficacy and the speed of the effect of pain relief in PLPHs.