Dural Sinus and Cerebral Venous Thrombosis

Abstract

THE USE of oral contraceptive agents has been proposed to predispose to a variety of neurological problems including vascular headaches,^1-5convulsive seizures, benign intracranial hypertension,⁵optic neuritis,⁵and cerebral vascular accidents.^1-9Arterial thromboses reportedly have been the cause of most of the cerebrovascular accidents. This report concerns two young women who developed dural sinus and cortical venous thromboses while they were taking oral contraceptive agents. Report of Cases Case1.—An obese, 35-year-old, white woman, gravida 5, para 5, had a past history of eclampsia with her second pregnancy and hypertension with each subsequent pregnancy. Her mother was hypertensive, and her father reportedly died of a cerebral vascular accident at age 38. The patient had gained 4.5 kg (10 lb) during the two months before admission. She had taken norethynodrel and mestranol intermittently for the past two years and was in the last half of a