Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension in Childhood: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Spontaneous intracranial hypotension results from 1 or more spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid leaks, and generally presents with severe and persisting orthostatic headache. Diagnosis can be difficult as spontaneous intracranial hypotension is very rare in childhood and has a wide spectrum of clinical features and neuroimaging findings. Lumbar autologous epidural blood patch can be helpful for confirmation of diagnosis and symptom relief. We report a 15-year-old female with spontaneous intracranial hypotension who experienced immediate resolution of her symptoms following lumbar autologous epidural blood patch on 2 occasions, and review the literature on this well-recognized but probably underdiagnosed headache syndrome in childhood.