Venous Sinus Pulsatility and the Potential Role of Dural Incompetence in Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension

Neurosurgery 71:877–884, 2012

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) remains a poorly understood and therapeutically challenging disease. Enthusiasm has emerged for endovascular therapy with stent reconstruction of dural sinus narrowing; however, a complete understanding of the hydrodynamic dysequilibrium is lacking.

OBJECTIVE: To review and characterize catheter manometry findings including pulsatility changes within the venous sinuses in IIH.

METHODS: Cases of venous sinus stent implantation for IIH were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS: Three cases of venous sinus stent implantation for treatment of IIH are reported. All cases demonstrated severe narrowing (>70%) within the transverse sinus and a high pressure gradient across the lesion (>30 mm Hg). Stent implantation resulted in pulsatility attenuation, correction of pressure gradient, and improvement of flow.

CONCLUSION: We report the finding of high venous sinus pulsatility attenuation after stent implantation for dural sinus narrowing and propose the hypothesis that this finding is a marker of advanced dural sinus incompetence. This characteristic may be useful in identifying patients who would benefit from endovascular stent remodeling.

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