Idiopathic intracranial hypertension and pregnancy. A report of two cases

The authors describe two cases of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) during pregnancy. The first case was discovered in a 21-year-old primigravida at 15 weeks gestation and thereafter six evacuation lumbar punctures were necessary, and a treatment by acetazolamide, 1000 mg/day, was prescribed until parturition. Labor was induced at 37 weeks for intrauterine growth retardation associated with oligohydramnios. The second patient, a 38-year-old tertigravida primipara presented clinical signs of IIH at 28 weeks gestation in the context of preterm labour after a suicide attempt by massive ingestion of venlafaxine. She was given an evacuation lumbar puncture and went into labour at 29 weeks, after tocolysis failure. The diagnosis of IIH is to be done only by exclusion, in front of a normal biological composition of the spinal fluid at lumbar puncture with increased opening pressure, and after a brain imaging excluding any expansive intracranial process or hydrocephaly. Obstetrical prognosis is usually favourable. The main complication of this pathology resides in the ocular impact. Outside pregnancy the risk factors of IIH which have been evoked are polycystic ovary syndromes and blood coagulation anomalies as thrombophilia or hypofibrinolysis. Treatment of this pathology should be medical in the first instance and surgical only in the case of resistance or for severe ocular involvement. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.