Background: Headache is a common complication of lumbar puncture (LP). Although in most cases post-LP headaches are not severe and have a benign course, they can also be a manifestation of a potentially life-threatening complication such as subdural hematoma (SDH).
Case report: We describe a patient in whom a massive SDH developed after LP and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage, which were performed during the diagnostic evaluation of freezing of gait.
Conclusions: SDH should not be excluded from the differential diagnosis of headache following LP, especially when there is a loss of CSF.
Keywords: cerebrospinal fluid drainage; freezing of gait; headache; lumbar puncture; subdural hematoma.