Not so benign intracranial hypertension

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7390.613

BMJ 2003;326:613-614 ( 22 March )

Editorials

Not so benign intracranial hypertension

Condition needs to be diagnosed before patients develop visual symptoms

Lesson of the week p 641

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

That a common antibiotic, doxycycline, used to treat malaria, acne, and other infections could cause increased intracranialpressure is not a recent revelation.¹ Other tetracyclic antibioticssuch as minocycline and tetracycline have caused intracranialhypertension.

Benign intracranial hypertension is a syndrome of signs and symptoms of increased intracranial pressure without causativelesions on images obtained by magnetic resonance imaging or computedtomography.² The disorder is controversial from its name toits putative pathophysiology, but it should be considered whenanyone taking doxycycline begins to complain of a newheadache.

The first controversy surrounding the disorder is the name $---$ benign intracranial hypertension. For over 100 years the conditionhas been known as pseudotumour cerebri or benign intracranialhypertension.³ Corbett and Thompson, following the lead ofBuchheit, made a plea to replace "benign" with "idiopathic,"⁴to set apart the idiopathic form of increased intracranial pressurefrom symptomatic forms, and to dispel the notion . . . [Full text of this article]

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Lesson of the week: Doxycycline induced intracranial hypertension: J Lochhead and J S Elston
BMJ 2003 326: 641-642. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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