Abstract
Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of acetazolamide in the treatment of idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Methods: We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane central for relevant published clinical trials. We performed the risk of bias using Cochrane's risk of bias tool. Our outcomes of interest were: SF-36 mental and physical scores, papilledema grade, diplopia, optic nerve head (ONH) volume, and 6-item listed headache impact test (HIT6). We conducted the analysis using OpenMeta Analyst Software and used mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for analyzing continuous data, while risk ratio (RR) and 95% CI was used for analyzing dichotomous outcomes. Results: We included six clinical trials in our analysis. The results revealed that, compared to baseline, acetazolamide significantly improves the SF-36 physical score (MD=3.54, (95% CI [-2.014%, 9.107%), SF-36 mental score (MD=2.593, (95% CI [-2.238%, 7.424%), reduces papilledema grade (MD=-0.687, (95% CI [-1.795%, 0.420%), and HIT6 score (MD=-5.675, (95% CI [-14.745%, 3.395%). Conclusion: Acetazolamide is an effective medical treatment for idiopathic intracranial hypertension. However, more studies are still required to provide clearer evidence about the drug efficacy and safety.