The EEG in benign intracranial hypertension

Abstract

The case notes and EEGs of fourteen patients diagnosed between 1949 and 1961 as suffereing from benign intracranial hypertension were studied. The majority of these EEGs appeared slightly abnormal and burst activity was a very common feature. In order to provide some standard for comparison, the EEGs of a further 31 patients with obstructive hydrocephalus due to known lesions in the posterior fossa were obtained. It was found that the background records were very similar and showed no gross abnormalities in either of the two series of records but that burst activity appeared in almost three-quarters of all the records and slightly more often in the records of patients with benign intracranial hypertension. It is suggested that these brief, infrequent bursts are the important abnormality and may be related to the rise in intracranial pressure.