Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: A Need for a Treatment Trial?

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH} also called pseudotumor cerebri, is a disorder of elevated intracranial pressure of unknown cause. The disease has an incidence of/100,000 per year (18/100,000 in obese women of the childbearing years).1 Risk factors include recent weight gain, female gender and possibly hormonal factors. Anecdotal reports of medical and surgical treatments suggest efficacy but are unproved.2-4 There are two published prospective studies5,6both have too few subjects to draw meaningful conclusions for treatment. The optimal management to prevent visual loss is unknown.