Objective: To describe a mother and her 2 sons affected by idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), associated in the sons with root irritation symptom. Unlike the other 4 families reported previously, obesity was not present in our patients.
Design: Case reports.
Setting: Department of pediatrics in a university school of Medicine, Naples, Italy.
Patients: A mother (aged 36 years) and her 2 sons (aged 14 and 9 years) developed IIH at different times. Neuroimaging showed an empty sella in the mother, while IIH was associated with spinal and radicular pain in her 2 sons. The mother and the younger son developed permanent visual loss.
Conclusions: Ophthalmologic follow-up in our patients indicates that IIH is a chronic disease. Surgical treatment should be considered an option.