Differences between Elevated ICP, Papilledema, and Pseudopapilledema

It is important to note that optic disc edema doesn’t always correlate with chronic ICP elevation leading to papilledema. Pseudopapilledema is a benign elevation of the optic nerve head that has no related elevation in ICP. This condition often occurs if there is a small crowded optic nerve head, tilted optic disc, or optic nerve head drusen

Below is a table showing the differences between elevated ICP, Papilledema and Pseudopapilledema.

	Acutely Elevated ICP	Papilledema	Pseudopapilledema
ICP	Acutely high	Chronically high	Normal
ONSD	> 5 mm	> 5 mm	Normal
Optic Disc Bulging	Normal	> 0.6 mm	> 0.6 mm
Example	Early intracranial hemorrhage	Pseudotumor cerebri	Small crowded optic nerve head

In the upcoming sections, we will focus on the two most common pathologies of increased ICP and/or papilledema: intracranial hemorrhage and pseudotumor cerebri (idiopathic intracranial hypertension).