How to Use lumbar puncture in a Sentence

lumbar puncture

noun
  • Not a muscle spasm, after all, but a post lumbar puncture headache.
    — Katie Gutierrez, TIME, 19 Sep. 2024
  • Doctors may also do what’s called a lumbar puncture to drain the excess fluid.
    — Erika Edwards, NBC news, 23 May 2025
  • Health care providers are advised to give anyone exposed a lumbar puncture to look for signs of infection.
    — Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 30 June 2023
  • Another way to diagnose the disease is through a lumbar puncture, or spinal tap.
    — Eliezer J Sternberg, Discover Magazine, 13 May 2019
  • It is injected into the cerebrospinal fluid through a lumbar puncture.
    — Bradley J. Fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, 2 Mar. 2018
  • Liam needed to be sedated so that doctors could do a lumbar puncture for a clear diagnosis.
    — Erika Edwards, NBC news, 2 Apr. 2026
  • But there were no clear signs of infection on any of his tests, besides the lumbar test, which could have just been caused by a traumatic lumbar puncture.
    — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 24 Jan. 2024
  • Using medical lumbar puncture to validate nasal oxytocin in humans is a great idea.
    — Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 8 Dec. 2013
  • These tests include either a PET scan or a lumbar puncture, otherwise known as a spinal tap.
    — Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 10 July 2023
  • The next test is usually a lumbar puncture, or spinal tap, in which doctors insert a needle into the spinal canal to collect some spinal fluid.
    — Sydney Lupkin, NPR, 24 May 2025
  • After months of cognitive tests and a lumbar puncture to assess spinal fluid, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
    — Vanessa Etienne, Peoplemag, 10 July 2023
  • Other tests may include tissue sampling or a spinal tap called a lumbar puncture during which fluid is removed from two bones in the lower spine for testing.
    — Clare Fisher, Peoplemag, 11 Jan. 2024
  • Doctors diagnosed it by doing a lumbar puncture, or spinal tap, to analyze their cerebrospinal fluid.
    — Erika Edwards, NBC news, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Doctors can test for folate levels in the brain with a lumbar puncture (also known as a spinal tap) to detect folate levels in the cerebrospinal fluid.
    — Alice Park, Time, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Meningitis testing includes an MRI and a lumbar puncture, also called a spinal tap.
    — Claire Thornton, USA TODAY, 14 June 2023
  • The drug will now be given once every two months by lumbar puncture instead of every month, said Ionis partner Roche.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 July 2019
  • The medication is administered into the spinal fluid via a lumbar puncture every few weeks.
    — Melissa Rudy, Fox News, 18 Mar. 2025
  • But Bennett thought that delivering them directly to the cerebrospinal fluid via lumbar puncture might work.
    — Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 3 Mar. 2020
  • There’s been a bone marrow aspiration, platelet transfusions, a lumbar puncture and chemotherapy, too.
    — oregonlive, 31 Aug. 2019
  • Some trials also asked patients to undergo successive lumbar punctures.
    — AZCentral.com, 27 June 2023
  • Promising therapies for some diseases are administered through lumbar punctures, which are not a routine part of a doctor’s daily practice.
    — Ed Silverman, STAT, 6 Apr. 2023
  • The lumbar puncture did not go smoothly, with multiple attempts needed in order to access my CSF.
    — Jodi Ettenberg, CNN, 29 Jan. 2022
  • Taylor began receiving a new treatment via lumbar puncture and saw immediate results.
    — Candace Jordan, chicagotribune.com, 19 Dec. 2017
  • However, PET scans can cost thousands of dollars, and many patients dread a lumbar puncture to collect spinal fluid.
    — Kelly Servick, Science | AAAS, 21 July 2021
  • To make a more definitive diagnosis, a healthcare team will drain some of the cerebrospinal fluid using a procedure called a spinal tap (lumbar puncture).
    — Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 27 May 2025
  • The diagnosis of cryptococcal meningitis involves a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to check for the presence of the fungus in spinal fluids.
    — Brigid Dwyer, Verywell Health, 2 July 2024
  • This means newborns end up being transferred from their mothers’ arms to neonatal intensive care units for blood tests, X-rays and even lumbar punctures to test cerebral spinal fluid.
    — Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Mar. 2023
  • Ayah also gets alternative medicine via a lumbar puncture every few months, which her mother described as similar to the epidural women get when having a baby.
    — Faith Karimi, CNN, 31 Mar. 2021
  • If the lumbar puncture yields positive results, patients may be candidates for a ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt.
    — Richard Menger Md Mpa, Forbes.com, 23 May 2025
  • Doctors often need to perform a lumbar puncture, otherwise known as spinal tap, to sample spinal fluid and look for signs of inflammation and abnormal antibodies.
    — Aarti Sarwal, The Conversation, 7 July 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lumbar puncture.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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