Woman's runny nose was leaking brain fluid

A US woman who thought she had a persistent runny nose for two years actually had brain fluid leaking into her nose and throat.

Kendra Jackson hit her head against the dashboard of her car in a serious accident two-and-a-half years ago.

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Since then, Jackson has suffered from migraine headaches, persistent coughing and sneezing.

Then her runny nose began to worsen.

"When it didn't go away, I kept going back and forth to the doctors, and they prescribed every kind of medicine you can think of, and my nose just kept on running," she told CNN.

Jackson was told she was probably suffering from seasonal allergies.

She started sleeping upright in a chair, waking up with her shirt wet with fluid.

It was eventually a doctor's assistant who connected the dots, realising the half a litre of fluid Jackson was losing each day was actually brain fluid.

Jackson had suffered a tiny fracture in her skull in the car accident, causing cerebrospinal fluid to drip into her nasal cavities and throat.

The clear, colourless fluid surrounds and protects the brain and spinal cord.

The tiny hole was in her cribriform plate, a part of the skull only as thick as a potato chip.

As the years passed, the hole grew bigger and bigger.

The University of Nebraska Medical Centre's rhinologist Christie Barnes was able to plug the hole.

"I used tissue from the inside of her nose to plug the leak," Dr Barnes said.

"I also borrowed some abdominal fat; it makes a great plugging agent in this location, so with just a tiny bit of fat, I was able to plug the leak."

Jackson is now back at home and is finally free of her runny nose.