Patient's question:
Your friend's child developed encephalitis due to hand, foot, and mouth disease last month and underwent lumbar puncture. After being diagnosed with encephalitis, they received a week of treatment. Now, I would like to ask if a lumbar puncture is still required during the follow-up examination?Doctor's answer:
A lumbar puncture needs to be performed. Before stopping medication and upon discharge, it is essential to conduct a thorough re-examination of the lumbar puncture. Only when the thorough examination of the lumbar puncture is completely normal can it be proven that the encephalitis has been fully cured, and medication can then be stopped. Therefore, before stopping medication or discharge, it is necessary to perform another thorough examination of the lumbar puncture to re-evaluate the cerebrospinal fluid condition.