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.