Tag: pseudotumor cerebri

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Stenting for Venous Sinus Stenosis in Patients With Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension

Neurosurgery 94:648–656, 2024

Although venous sinus stenting (VSS) improves cerebrospinal fluid reabsorption and decreases intracranial pressure in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), the underlying pathophysiology of IIH is not well understood. We present a review and meta-analysis of the literature on VSS for IIH treatment, focusing on the rates of restenosis and symptom recurrence.

METHODS: We performed a systematic review of PubMed and Embase databases between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2021. Articles including ≥5 patients with IIH and venous sinus stenosis treated with VSS and posttreatment rates of restenosis (de novo stenosis at a different anatomic location along the dural sinuses or restenosis within or adjacent to the stent) were selected. Demographic, procedural, and outcomes data were collected and analyzed. Mean values for variables collected were pooled, and a mean value was calculated with a 95% CI.

RESULTS: Twenty-four articles were included, comprising 694 patients and 781 VSS cases. The mean age was 33.9 (CI, 31.5-36.2) years. The mean body mass index was 35.3 (CI, 32.9-37.7) kg/m2 . Before VSS, 98.8% (CI, 96.8%-100.0%) of patients experienced headaches, 87.7% (CI, 80.6%-95.5%) had visual acuity issues, 78.7% (CI, 69.9%-88.5%) had papilledema, 58.3% (CI, 46.0%-73.9%) had tinnitus, and 98.8% (96.4%-100.0%) had symptoms refractory to previous therapies. After VSS, 77.7% (CI, 71.1%-84.95%) experienced symptom improvement and 22.3% (CI, 15.1%-29.0%) had persistent or worsened symptoms. Pooled restenosis rate was 17.7% (CI, 14.9%-20.9%).

CONCLUSION: VSS is effective in alleviating IIH signs and symptoms, but the associated high rates of restenosis and persistent symptoms highlight the need for further investigation of this procedure and other adjunctive treatments for IIH.

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Prepontine Shunting for Pseudotumor Cerebri in Previously Failed Shunt Patients

Neurosurgery 88(2)2021: 306–312

Shunting procedures have a high failure rate when used to treat pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) patients who have failed medical therapy. This failure is believed to be attributable to the collapsibility of the ventricular systemwhenexposed to increased differential pressure gradients in the cerebral spinal fluid compartments caused by ventriculoperitoneal shunts (VPS).

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether prepontine/interpeduncular cistern shunting may be a reasonable alternative to VPS intervention in PTC patients with history of shunt failure. There have been no large series of cisternal-peritoneal shunt (CPS) patients in the PTC population.

METHODS: A retrospective review of 49 patients with placement of CPS for PTC with 2 failed prior shunting procedures was performed. Shunt survivability was based on shunt patency and resolution of ophthalmologic symptoms and cranial nerve deficits. All patientswere followed for aminimum of 3 yrwith serial ophthalmologic and neurosurgical evaluations.

RESULTS: At 3 yr, 44 of the 49 (88.9%) patients had working CPS. Three patients in this group had infections requiring complete shunt removal. Excluding infections, 44 of 46 (95.5%) shunts were functional at 3 yr. There were 3 small, asymptomatic hemorrhages that did not increase patient length of stay, and there were no catastrophic hemorrhages or strokes. There were also no abdominal complications related to shunt placement.

CONCLUSION: CPS is a viable alternative to VPS in PTC patients who have failed traditional shunting methods to give these patients a persistent benefit of a working shunt. The procedure provides this solution with low operative and perioperative morbidity.

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Predictors of admission and shunt revision during emergency department visits for shunt-treated adult patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension

J Neurosurg 127:233–239, 2017

Factors associated with emergency department admission and/or shunt revision for idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) are unclear. In this study, the associations of several factors with emergency department admission and shunt revision for IIH were explored.

METHODS The authors performed a retrospective review of 31 patients (169 total emergency department visits) who presented to the emergency department for IIH-related symptoms between 2003 and 2015. Demographics, comorbidities, symptoms, IIH diagnosis and treatment history, ophthalmological examination, diagnostic lumbar puncture (LP), imaging findings, and data regarding admission and management decisions were collected. Multivariable general linear models regression analysis was performed to assess the predictive factors associated with admission and shunt revision.

RESULTS Thirty-one adult patients with a history of shunt placement for IIH visited the emergency department a total of 169 times for IIH-related symptoms, with a median of 3 visits (interquartile range 2–7 visits) per patient. Five patients had more than 10 emergency department visits. Baseline factors associated with admission included male sex (OR 10.47, 95% CI 2.13–51.56; p = 0.004) and performance of an LP (OR 3.10, 95% CI 1.31–7.31; p = 0.01). Contrastingly, older age at presentation (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.90–0.99; p = 0.01), and a greater number of prior emergency department visits (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.89–0.99; p = 0.02) were slightly protective against admission. The presence of papilledema (OR 11.62, 95% CI 3.20–42.16; p < 0.001), Caucasian race (OR 40.53, 95% CI 2.49–660.09 p = 0.009), and systemic hypertension (OR 7.73, 95% CI 1.11–53.62; p = 0.03) were independent risk factors for shunt revision. In addition, a greater number of prior emergency department visits (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77–0.96; p = 0.009) and older age at presentation (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.87–0.99; p = 0.02) were slightly protective against shunt revision, while there was suggestive evidence that presence of a programmable shunt (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.05–1.14; p = 0.07) was a protective factor against shunt revision. Of note, location of the proximal catheter in the ventricle or lumbar subarachnoid space was not significantly associated with admission or shunt revision in the multivariable analyses.

CONCLUSIONS The decision to admit a shunt-treated patient from the emergency department for symptoms related to IIH is challenging. Knowledge of factors associated with the need for admission and/or shunt revision is required. In this study, factors such as male sex, younger age at presentation, lower number of prior emergency department visits, and performance of a diagnostic LP were independent predictors of admission. In addition, papilledema was strongly predictive of the need for shunt revision, highlighting the importance of an ophthalmological examination for shunt-treated adults with IIH who present to the emergency department.

 

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Imaging of Intracranial Pressure Disorders

Neurosurgery 80:341–354, 2017

Intracranial pressure (ICP) is the pressure inside the bony calvarium and can be affected by a variety of processes, such as intracranial masses and edema, obstruction or leakage of cerebrospinal uid, and obstruction of venous out flow. This review focuses on the imaging of 2 important but less well understood ICP disorders: idiopathic intracranial hypertension and spontaneous intracranial hypotension. Both of these ICP disorders have salient imaging findings that are important to recognize to help prevent their misdiagnosis from other common neurological disorders.

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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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Dural sinus stents for idiopathic intracranial hypertension

J Neurosurg 116:538–548, 2012. DOI: 10.3171/2011.10.JNS101410

The use of unilateral dural sinus stent placement in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) has been described by multiple investigators. To date there is a paucity of information on the angiographic and hemodynamic outcome of these procedures. The object of this study was to define the clinical, angiographic, and hemodynamic outcome of placement of unilateral dural sinus stents to treat intracranial venous hypertension in a subgroup of patients meeting the diagnostic criteria for IIH.

Methods. Eighteen consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of IIH were treated with unilateral stent placement in the transverse-sigmoid junction region. All patients had papilledema. All 12 female patients had headaches; 1 of 6 males had headaches previously that disappeared after weight loss. Seventeen patients had elevated opening pressures at lumbar puncture. Twelve patients had opening pressures of 33–55 cm H2O. All patients underwent diagnostic cerebral arteriography that showed venous outflow compromise by filling defects in the transverse-sigmoid junction region. All patients underwent intracranial selective venous pressure measurements across the filling defects. Follow-up arteriography was performed in 16 patients and follow-up venography/venous pressure measurements were performed in 15 patients.

Results. Initial pressure gradients across the filling defects ranged from 10.5 to 39 mm Hg. Nineteen stent procedures were performed in 18 patients. One patient underwent repeat stent placement for hemodynamic failure. Pressure gradients were reduced in every instance and ranged from 0 to 7 mm Hg after stenting. Fifteen of 16 patients in whom ophthalmological follow-up was performed experienced disappearance of papilledema. Follow-up arteriography in 16 patients at 5–99 months (mean 25.3 months, median 18.5 months) showed patency of all stents without in-stent restenosis. Two patients had filling defects immediately above the stent. Four other patients developed transverse sinus narrowing above the stent without filling defects. One of these patients underwent repeat stent placement because of hemodynamic deterioration. Two of the other 3 patients had hemodynamic deterioration with recurrent pressure gradients of 10.5 and 18 mm Hg.

Conclusions. All stents remained patent without restenosis. Stent placement is durable and successfully eliminates papilledema in appropriately selected patients. Continuing hemodynamic success in this series was 80%, and was 87% with repeat stent placement in 1 patient.

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Efficacy of endovascular stenting in dural venous sinus stenosis for the treatment of idiopathic intracranial hypertension

Neurosurg Focus 27 (5):E14, 2009.DOI: 10.3171/2009.9.FOCUS09165

Multiple pathophysiological mechanisms have been proposed for the increased intracranial pressure observed in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). The condition is well characterized, with intractable headaches, visual obscurations, and papilledema as dominant features, mainly affecting obese women. With the advent of MR venography and increased use of cerebral angiography, there has been recent emphasis on the significant number of patients with IIH found to have associated nonthrombotic dural venous sinus stenosis. This has led to a renewed interest in endovascular stenting as a treatment for IIH. However, the assumption that venous stenosis leads to a high pressure gradient that decreases CSF resorption through arachnoid villi requires further evidence.

In this paper, the authors analyze the published results to date of dural venous sinus stenting in patients with IIH. They also present a case from their institution for illustration.

The pathophysiological mechanism in IIH requires further elucidation, but venous sinus stenosis with subsequent intracranial hypertension appears to be an important mechanism in at least a subgroup of patients with IIH. Among these patients, 78% had complete relief or improvement of their main presenting symptoms after endovascular stenting.

Resolution or improvement in papilledema was seen in 85.1% of patients.

Endovascular stenting should be considered whenever venous sinus stenosis is diagnosed in patients with IIH.

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