Objective:

It remains unclear if the presence or treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) influences the severity or natural history of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH). Hence, we did retrospective analysis to investigate the correlation of OSA in IIH with regards to opening pressure and papilledema grading.

Background:

Retrospective review of all IIH patients seen between 2018 -2020 in Neuro-Ophthalmology clinic at University of Kentucky.

Design/Methods:

80 IIH patients were categorized into three groups. Group1 had IIH and OSA (19 patients), group 2 had IIH, but no OSA (21 patients) and Group 3 had IIH with suspected OSA, but sleep study not completed (40 patients). Comparison of these three groups on demographic and clinical outcomes were done.

Results:

Chi-square tests were used to compare the three groups on categorical outcomes. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to compare the groups on continuous outcomes that were either normally or non-normally distributed, respectively. Patients in group 1 were significantly older than group 2 (p = .013). Group 1 weighed significantly more than group 2 and 3 (p = .004 and p < .001, respectively). Group 1 had a significantly higher BMI than those on group 3 (p = .024), but their difference compared to group 2 did not reach significance (p = .061). When comparing the three groups on clinical outcomes, overall, there were no significance differences in opening pressure, or papilledema grading for either eye.

Conclusions:

In our study, there was no significant difference between the association of OSA on IIH in terms of opening pressure and the severity of papilledema. Larger, prospective and controlled studies are required to further evaluate the relationship between OSA and IIH, and the effect of OSA treatment on the clinical course of IIH.