Contraindications for a lateral cervical puncture include brain abscesses, brain tumors, cervical spine anomalies and deformities, coagulopathy, increased intracranial pressure, inflammatory adhesions, local infections, posterior fossa abscesses, posterior fossa tumors, thrombocytopenia, and vertebral artery anomalies (course or location). Arnold-Chiari malformations and other congenital abnormalities in the region of the foramen magnum are also a relative contraindication. These include achondroplasia, basilar impression, Dandy-Walker malformation, Klippel–Feil syndrome, and syringomyelia.