Treatment of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypotension With Tea: A Case Report.
BACKGROUND
The syndrome of spontaneous intracranial hypotension has been increasingly diagnosed since its discovery through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is a rare syndrome that is due to the leakage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from a tear in the dura and can occur at any age, even among adolescents, but is most frequently seen among females in late middle age.


METHODS
Here, we describe a 32-year-old woman with a two-month history of headaches and occasional nausea and vomiting (N/V). MRI without gadolinium was normal, but meningeal enhancement was seen in MRI with gadolinium. The lumbar puncture revealed a low opening pressure. Computed tomography myelography (CT myelography) showed no leakage; Therefore, idiopathic intracranial hypotension was diagnosed. Treatment was started using tea, and the patient's headache got significantly better in about a day.


CONCLUSIONS
Conservative therapy, such as bed rest and caffeine treatment with eight cups of tea daily, yielded a significant improvement in our patient. Effectively, the patient constitutes a case of idiopathic intracranial hypotension due to undetectable CSF leakage or hyper-absorption, with good response to conservative management through tea-drinking. Further investigations with an appropriate sample size are needed in order to confirm this intervention in the treatment of idiopathic intracranial hypotension.
Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IR Iran.
Peyman
P
Petramfar
Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IR Iran.
S Saeed
SS
Mohammadi
Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IR Iran.
Farideh
F
Hosseinzadeh
Caffeine; Headache; Idiopathic Orthostatic Hypotension; Intracranial Hypotension; Tea