Author response: Opinion and Special Articles: Stress when performing the first lumbar puncture may compromise patient safety

I thank Dr. Sethi for the comment on our article.¹ We agree with Dr. Sethi that extrinsic factors play an important role in optimizing lumbar puncture (LP) performance. In our study, we had identical settings across participants' experience levels. Most of the LP procedures were performed in outpatient clinics and none on night shifts. Furthermore, the assistant was the same in all procedures. The factors described by Dr. Sethi would have contributed to even larger differences between the novice and experts, emphasizing the need for more training of novices.

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