Is Bariatric Surgery Associated with Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension?

Spontaneous intracranial hypotension is a highly disabling syndrome that most commonly presents with severe, disabling orthostatic headache. Although spinal meningeal cysts are often visible in these patients, and conditions such as Ehler-Danlos syndrome have been implicated, the etiopathogenesis is not well understood.

To determine whether bariatric surgery is a risk factor for spontaneous intracranial hypotension, investigators compared the frequency of bariatric surgery in 338 patients with spontaneous intracranial hypotension and 245 patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysm.

Eleven patients (3.3%) with spontaneous intracranial hypotension had undergone bariatric surgery compared with two patients (0.8%) with unruptured intracranial …