benign intercrainial hypertension

hya i was diagnosed with B.I.H.  ( benign intercrainial hypertension 5 years ago and bout 2 years ago i was fitted with a vp shunt but had it redone in september 07 however i still av headaches sometimes but the thing i want to enquire on is that people say that i can drift off in conversation and then later going back to it and that i 4get things and sometimes carnt even remember anyone asking me something, i just want to know if this is common and if it is a side affect of my condition.

thanks
Rachael xx

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

Short term memory loss, though not very common, is associated with BIH. Attempts at associating the memory loss with increasing pressure in the head have not been convincing. But there are quite a few patients having amnesia. The least that one can do is make sure that the shunt is working.

Regards