Patients misperception regarding the difficulty of lumbar puncture

Aim: Lumbar puncture (LP) is a crucial method of diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases. Despite its importance, the patients' refusal of the procedure leads to difficulties in diagnosis and treatment. One of the main reasons for patients' refusal may be that LP is perceived to be more difficult than it actually is. Our aim was to investigate whether the patients had prejudices against the difficulty of LP treatment. Methods: Sixty-seven patients aged between 20 and 80 years were included in to the study. Immediately prior to the procedure, each patient was asked to rate the difficulty level of the operation with the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) as 0 very easy to 10 very difficult. The cause of the LP, prediagnosis, education status, age and sex, presence of complications and the title of the physician performing the LP were recorded. Results: A total of 20 patients refused the procedure (29.3%). Of the 47 patients, who had the procedure performed, 21 were female and 26 were male. Twenty-seven LP were performed by firstyear assistant and 21 were performed by second-year assistant. Patients' mean VAS scores before the LP were 7.9 [+ or -] 2.0 and were 4.1 [+ or -] 2.9 after the LP. Post-procedure VAS scores were significantly lower than pre-procedural VAS scores (p