Benign intracranial hypertension.: History, clinical features and treatment in a series of 41 patients

Introduction. Benign intracranial hypertension (BIH) is a syndrome characterized by the abnormal elevation of the pressure intracranial with a normal composition of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and in absence of ventriculomegaly or someone intracranial expansive lesion. Aim. The present work seeks, by means of the analysis of diagnosed patients of HICB, to evaluate its epidemic, clinical and therapeutic features. Patients and methods. 87 protocols intracranial hypertension diagnosed patients with normal cerebral TAC were revised, between 1999 and 2002. 41 patients were selected assisting to the approaches of hypertension benign intracranial. Results. The reached results allow us to draw the following profile, a woman (> 70%) of between 21 and 30 years (29%), smoker, obese (59%) with an recent increase of weight (37%) that consults after taking more than three months with headache (89%), alterations of the visual acuity (> 50%) and nauseas with some vomit (> 40%). In the exploration it presents bilateral papilledema (100%), a pressure of LCR bigger than 20 cmH(2)O (40,78 +/- 15,55 cmH(2)O) with normal composition, without alterations in the neuroradiological study results. Conclusion. The treatment with acetazolamide was favourable (51,2%), being definitive (70%) the lumbar peritoneal shunt when it is specified (30,7%), being improves these figures in those patients with a smaller pressure of the LCR in the moment of the diagnosis (p<0,035).