The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on idiopathic intracranial hypertension patients

ABSTRACT

Background and aims: The COVID-19 pandemic became a challenge to maintain care for patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). We aimed to find out how they were affected during lockdown. Methods: 30 IIH patients admitted to hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic were studied. Their demographic, neuro-ophthalmologic findings were evaluated. World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index (WHO-5), The EUROHIS-QOL 8-item index, National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ-25), Headache Impact Test (HIT-6), Covid-19 Anxiety Scale were used to assess QoL and pandemic associated anxiety. Age, sex and body mass index (BMI) matched volunteers constituted the control group. Results: Apart from the Covid-19 Anxiety Scale and the NEI-VFQ-25 color vision subscale, all test scores were impaired in IIH patients. General vision, distance vision and social function subscale scores of the NEI-VFQ-25 were lower in patients with low visual acuity (logMAR 0.1). Patients with perimetric MD 9 and papilledema grade three had higher HIT-6 scores than patients with perimetric MD<9 and papilledema grade <3. Conclusion: Both vision-specific and overall QOL was reduced in patients with IIH. Headache disability was more prominent in patients with severe clinical features of raised intracranial pressure. Anxiety caused by COVID pandemic was not different from the healthy controls.