Idiopathic intracranial hypertension: Year of the Zebra

DUPLICATE

When a balloon fills with water, the pressure inside rises progressively, stretching the material and compressing anything that may be within. If the pressure keeps building, this may damage the structures that resists least, whether inside or outside. This is essentially the mechanism of idiopathic intracranial hypertension, wherein fluid builds up inside our central nervous system. In our analogy, the fluid flowing is the water building up, structures within are the brain and its nerve roots, and the 'material' around the balloon is our meninges, albeit being much less stretchy than a balloon’s walls. Idiopathic intracranial hypertension has no known cause. Risk factors include being female, young, and overweight. However, the disease can develop in both males and females of all ages and body types. The most common symptom is often excessively painful or frequent headaches, sometimes associated with nausea and vomiting, that are not relieved by medication. There can also be back and neck pain, a ringing in the ears called tinnitus, and visual disturbances, all of which can be explained by the increased intracranial pressure. Inherently, symptoms can be non-specific and misdiagnosis is a real risk for many patients. To learn more about the diagnosis and treatment of idiopathic intracranial hypertension, watch the dedicated Osmosis video on YouTube and Osmosis.org