Objective: The purpose of this study was to report the clinical characteristics and long-term visual outcomes in a cohort of children with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).
Design: Retrospective, observational cohort study.
Participants: Consecutive children who met the diagnostic criteria for definite IIH at a tertiary care pediatric hospital between 2009 and 2020.
Methods: The charts of pediatric patients with IIH were reviewed. The main outcome measure was long-term visual impairment, with an analysis of clinical features by age and risk factors for a poor visual outcome.
Results: There were 110 children (75 females) with IIH. At presentation, younger children with IIH were less likely to present with headaches (p = 0.01) and more likely to be asymptomatic (p = 0.03). There was a strong association with female sex (p < 0.001) and higher body mass index (p < 0.001) in adolescents in comparison to younger children. Of the 90 patients with long-term visual outcome data, only 8 (9%) had evidence of mild visual impairment (1 loss of visual acuity, 7 loss of visual field) with no cases of severe visual impairment. On risk factor analysis, the only variable associated with a poor visual outcome was greater severity of papilledema at diagnosis.
Conclusions: In this large series of pediatric IIH, the long-term visual outcomes were favourable, with evidence of mild visual impairment in less than 10% of patients.
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