Hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus is a clinical condition in which there is an excess of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) within the cavities (ventricles) of the brain. In the infantile form the fluid is under such pressure from obstruction to its flow from the ventricles that the soft head enlarges giving the most obvious clinical presentation. In the acute adult form the increased pressure from obstruction to outward flow of cerebrospinal fluid causes headache, loss of vision (from pressure on the optic nerves), and rapidly decreasing cerebral function, resulting in death, usually from respiratory arrest. In the chronic form the excess of CSF is accompanied by such slow ventricular dilatation that intracranial pressure is normal (it is often termed 'normal pressure hydrocephalus'), or only raised to very precise forms of measurement, and the slowly compressed brain undergoes some atrophy, with accompanying loss of higher mentation. Reciprocally, when the brain undergoes atrophy from some other destructive or degenerative pathology, the ventricles passively dilate, producing a condition termed 'hydrocephalus ex vacuo'.

© Badgerwood 2002

See: Hydrocephalus Bibliography  (visit)

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