Why Hydrocephalus Patients Suffer When the Weather Changes: A New Hypothesis

Andreas Spiegelberg; Lennart Stieglitz; Vartan Kurtcuoglu

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-59436-7_59

Why Hydrocephalus Patients Suffer When the Weather Changes: A New Hypothesis

Acta Neurochir Suppl. 2021:131:315-317. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-59436-7_59.

Authors

Andreas Spiegelberg¹, Lennart Stieglitz², Vartan Kurtcuoglu^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ The Interface Group, Institute of Physiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. andreas.spiegelberg@uzh.ch.
² Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ The Interface Group, Institute of Physiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁴ Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology and Neuroscience Center, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

PMID: 33839865
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-59436-7_59

Abstract

Hydrocephalus patients complain about symptoms related to weather changes, especially changes in atmospheric pressure (p_at). We aimed to determine which physical, physiological, and pathophysiological effects can explain this phenomenon. We hypothesized that intracranial pressure (ICP) is influenced by changes of intracranial blood volume caused by autoregulatory changes in arterial diameter as a reaction to changing levels of arterial CO₂ partial pressure (paCO₂) caused by changes in atmospheric pressure (p_at). To test this hypothesis, we investigated the influence of p_at on paCO₂, and then assessed the influence of paCO₂ on ICP by extrapolating data found in the literature. Using conservative assumptions, we found that a change of p_at of about 50 hPa will result in a change in ICP of above 1.65 mmHg, which could explain the symptoms patients reported.

Keywords: Atmospheric pressure; Hydrocephalus; Intracranial pressure; Weather.

MeSH terms

Homeostasis
Humans
Hydrocephalus*
Intracranial Pressure*
Weather