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For other uses, see Hydrocephalus (trilobite).
Not to be confused with Hypocephalus or Hydranencephaly.
Classification and external resources
Hydrocephalus seen on a CT scan of the brain.
ICD-10 G91, Q03
ICD-9 331.3, 331.4, 741.0, 742.3
DiseasesDB 6123
MedlinePlus 001571
eMedicine neuro/161
Patient UK Hydrocephalus
MeSH D006849

Hydrocephalus (from Greek hydro-, meaning "water", and ceph, meaning "head") is a medical condition in which there is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the ventricles of the brain. This causes increased intracranial pressure inside the skull and may cause progressive enlargement of the head if it occurs in childhood, convulsion, tunnel vision, and mental disability.


Two types of hydrocephalus are commonly described non-communicating hydrocephalus and communicating hydrocephalus, although there is evidence that communicating forms can lead to obstruction of CSF flow in many instances.

In non-communicating hydrocephalus, the CSF in the ventricles can not reach the subarachnoid space. This results from obstruction of interventricular foramina, cerebral aqueduct, or the outflow foramens of the fourth ventricle (median and lateral apertures). The most common obstruction is in the cerebral aqueduct. A block at any of these sites leads rapidly to dilatation of one or more ventricles. If the skull is still pliable as it is children younger than 2 years, the head may enlarge.

In communicating hydrocephalus, the obstruction of CSF flow is in the subarachnoid space from prior bleeding or meningitis. This causes thickening of the arachnoid leading to blockage of the return-flow channels. In some patients, the spaces filled by CSF are uniformly enlarged without an increase in intercranial pressure. This special form of communicating hydrocephalus is called normal pressure hydrocephalus, which results specifically from impaired CSF reabsorption at the arachnoid granulations. NPH's clinical manifestations are gait abnormality, dementia, and involuntary urination. NPH usually occurs in elderly patients.

Signs and symptoms[edit]

The clinical presentation of hydrocephalus varies with chronicity. Acute dilatation of the ventricular system is more likely to manifest with the nonspecific signs and symptoms of increased intracranial pressure. By contrast chronic dilatation (especially in the elderly population) may have a more insidious onset presenting, for instance, with Hakim's triad (Adams triad).


Hakim's triad of gait instability, urinary incontinence and dementia is a relatively typical manifestation of the distinct entity normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Focal neurological deficits may also occur, such as abducens nerve palsy and vertical gaze palsy (Parinaud syndrome due to compression of the quadrigeminal plate, where the neural centers coordinating the conjugated vertical eye movement are located). The symptoms depend on the cause of the blockage, the person's age, and how much brain tissue has been damaged by the swelling.

In infants with hydrocephalus, CSF builds up in the central nervous system, causing the fontanelle (soft spot) to bulge and the head to be larger than expected. Early symptoms may also include:

An infant with severe hydrocephalus.
  • Eyes that appear to gaze downward;
  • Irritability;
  • Seizures;
  • Separated sutures;
  • Sleepiness;
  • Vomiting.

Symptoms that may occur in older children can include:

  • Brief, shrill, high-pitched cry;
  • Changes in personality, memory, or the ability to reason or think;
  • Changes in facial appearance and eye spacing;
  • Crossed eyes or uncontrolled eye movements;
  • Difficulty feeding;
  • Excessive sleepiness;
  • Headache;
  • Irritability, poor temper control;
  • Loss of bladder control (urinary incontinence);
  • Loss of coordination and trouble walking;
  • Muscle spasticity (spasm);
  • Slow growth (child 0–5 years);
  • Slow or restricted movement;
  • Vomiting .[1]

Because hydrocephalus can injure the brain, thought and behavior may be adversely affected. Learning disabilities including short-term memory loss are common among those with hydrocephalus, who tend to score better on verbal IQ than on performance IQ, which is thought to reflect the distribution of nerve damage to the brain. However the severity of hydrocephalus can differ considerably between individuals and some are of average or above-average intelligence. Someone with hydrocephalus may have motion and visual problems, problems with coordination, or may be clumsy. They may reach puberty earlier than the average child (see precocious puberty). About one in four develops epilepsy.


The cause of hydrocephalus is not known with certainty and is probably multifactorial. It may be caused by impaired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow, reabsorption, or excessive CSF production.

Based on its underlying mechanisms, hydrocephalus can be classified into communicating and non-communicating (obstructive). Both forms can be either congenital or acquired.


Communicating hydrocephalus, also known as non-obstructive hydrocephalus, is caused by impaired cerebrospinal fluid reabsorption in the absence of any CSF-flow obstruction between the ventricles and subarachnoid space. It has been theorized that this is due to functional impairment of the arachnoidal granulations (also called arachnoid granulations or Pacchioni's granulations), which are located along the superior sagittal sinus and is the site of cerebrospinal fluid reabsorption back into the venous system. Various neurologic conditions may result in communicating hydrocephalus, including subarachnoid/intraventricular hemorrhage, meningitis and congenital absence of arachnoid villi. Scarring and fibrosis of the subarachnoid space following infectious, inflammatory, or hemorrhagic events can also prevent resorption of CSF, causing diffuse ventricular dilatation.

  • Hydrocephalus ex vacuo also refers to an enlargement of cerebral ventricles and subarachnoid spaces, and is usually due to brain atrophy (as it occurs in dementias), post-traumatic brain injuries and even in some psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia.[citation needed] As opposed to hydrocephalus, this is a compensatory enlargement of the CSF-spaces in response to brain parenchyma loss - it is not the result of increased CSF pressure.[citation needed]






In newborns and toddlers with hydrocephalus, the head circumference is enlarged rapidly and soon surpasses the 97th percentile. Since the skull bones have not yet firmly joined together, bulging, firm anterior and posterior fontanelles may be present even when the patient is in an upright position.


About 80-90% of fetuses or newborn infants with spina bifida—often associated with meningocele or myelomeningocele—develop hydrocephalus.[4]


This condition is acquired as a consequence of CNS infections, meningitis, brain tumors, head trauma, intracranial hemorrhage (subarachnoid or intraparenchymal) and is usually extremely painful.


Hydrocephalus is usually due to blockage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) outflow in the ventricles or in the subarachnoid space over the brain. In a person without hydrocephalus, CSF continuously circulates through the brain, its ventricles and the spinal cord and is continuously drained away into the circulatory system. Alternatively, the condition may result from an overproduction of the CSF, from a congenital malformation blocking normal drainage of the fluid, or from complications of head injuries or infections.[5]

Compression of the brain by the accumulating fluid eventually may cause neurological symptoms such as convulsions, intellectual disability and epileptic seizures. These signs occur sooner in adults, whose skulls are no longer able to expand to accommodate the increasing fluid volume within. Fetuses, infants, and young children with hydrocephalus typically have an abnormally large head, excluding the face, because the pressure of the fluid causes the individual skull bones — which have yet to fuse — to bulge outward at their juncture points. Another medical sign, in infants, is a characteristic fixed downward gaze with whites of the eyes showing above the iris, as though the infant were trying to examine its own lower eyelids.[6]

Spontaneous intracerebral and intraventricular hemorrhage with hydrocephalus shown on CT scan[7]

The elevated intracranial pressure may cause compression of the brain, leading to brain damage and other complications. Conditions among affected individuals vary widely.

If the foramina of the fourth ventricle or the cerebral aqueduct are blocked, cereobrospinal fluid (CSF) can accumulate within the ventricles. This condition is called internal hydrocephalus and it results in increased CSF pressure. The production of CSF continues, even when the passages that normally allow it to exit the brain are blocked. Consequently, fluid builds inside the brain, causing pressure that dilates the ventricles and compresses the nervous tissue. Compression of the nervous tissue usually results in irreversible brain damage. If the skull bones are not completely ossified when the hydrocephalus occurs, the pressure may also severely enlarge the head. The cerebral aqueduct may be blocked at the time of birth or may become blocked later in life because of a tumor growing in the brainstem.

Internal hydrocephalus can be successfully treated by placing a drainage tube (shunt) between the brain ventricles and abdominal cavity to eliminate the high intracranial pressure. There is some risk of infection being introduced into the brain through these shunts, however, and the shunts must be replaced as the person grows. A subarachnoid hemorrhage may block the return of CSF to the circulation.

This should be distinguished from external hydrocephalus. This is a condition generally seen in infants and involving enlarged fluid spaces or subarachnoid spaces around the outside of the brain. This is generally a benign condition that resolves spontaneously by 2 years of age. (Greenberg, Handbook of Neurosurgery, 5th Edition, pg 174).[8] Imaging studies and a good medical history can help to differentiate external hydrocephalus from subdural hemorrhages or symptomatic chronic extra-axial fluid collections which are accompanied by vomiting, headaches and seizures.



Shunt complication[edit]

Examples of possible complications include shunt malfunction, shunt failure, and shunt infection, along with infection of the shunt tract following surgery (the most common reason for shunt failure is infection of the shunt tract). Although a shunt generally works well, it may stop working if it disconnects, becomes blocked (clogged), infected, or it is outgrown. If this happens the cerebrospinal fluid will begin to accumulate again and a number of physical symptoms will develop (headaches, nausea, vomiting, photophobia/light sensitivity), some extremely serious, like seizures. The shunt failure rate is also relatively high (of the 40,000 surgeries performed annually to treat hydrocephalus, only 30% are a patient's first surgery)[10] and it is not uncommon for patients to have multiple shunt revisions within their lifetime.

Another complication can occur when CSF drains more rapidly than it is produced by the choroid plexus, causing symptoms -listlessness, severe headaches, irritability, light sensitivity, auditory hyperesthesia (sound sensitivity), nausea, vomiting, dizziness, vertigo, migraines, seizures, a change in personality, weakness in the arms or legs, strabismus, and double vision - to appear when the patient is vertical. If the patient lies down, the symptoms usually vanish quickly. A CT scan may or may not show any change in ventricle size, particularly if the patient has a history of slit-like ventricles. Difficulty in diagnosing overdrainage can make treatment of this complication particularly frustrating for patients and their families. Resistance to traditional analgesic pharmacological therapy may also be a sign of shunt overdrainage or failure.

The diagnosis of cerebrospinal fluid buildup is complex and requires specialist expertise. Diagnosis of the particular complication usually depends on when the symptoms appear - that is, whether symptoms occur when the patient is upright or in a prone position, with the head at roughly the same level as the feet.

Developing countries[edit]

Because the shunt systems is too expensive for most people in developing countries, such people often die without getting a shunt. Worse, the rate of revision in shunt systems adds to the cost of shunting many times. Looking at this point, a study done by Dr. Benjamin C. Warf compares shunt systems and highlights the role of low-cost shunt systems in most of the developing countries. This study was published in Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics May 2005 issue.[11] It compares the Chhabra shunt system to shunt systems from developed countries. The study was done in Uganda and the shunts were donated by the International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.


Skull of a hydrocephalic child (1800s)

References to hydrocephalic skulls can be found in ancient Egyptian medical literature from 2500 BC to 500 AD.[12] Hydrocephalus was described more clearly by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates in the 4th century BC, while a more accurate description was later given by the Roman physician Galen in the 2nd century AD.[12] The first clinical description of an operative procedure for hydrocephalus appears in the Al-Tasrif (1000 AD) by the Arab surgeon, Abulcasis, who clearly described the evacuation of superficial intracranial fluid in hydrocephalic children.[12] He described it in his chapter on neurosurgical disease, describing infantile hydrocephalus as being caused by mechanical compression. He states:[12]

“The skull of a newborn baby is often full of liquid, either because the matron has compressed it excessively or for other, unknown reasons. The volume of the skull then increases daily, so that the bones of the skull fail to close. In this case, we must open the middle of the skull in three places, make the liquid flow out, then close the wound and tighten the skull with a bandage.”

In 1881, a few years after the landmark study of Retzius and Key, Carl Wernicke pioneered sterile ventricular puncture and external CSF drainage for the treatment of hydrocephalus.[12] It remained an intractable condition until the 20th century, when shunts and other neurosurgical treatment modalities were developed. It is a lesser-known medical condition; relatively little research is conducted to improve treatment, and there is still no cure. In developing countries, the condition often goes untreated at birth. Before birth, the condition is difficult to diagnose, and there is limited access to medical treatment. However, when head swelling is prominent, children are taken at great expense for treatment. By then, brain tissue is undeveloped and neurosurgery is rare and difficult. Children more commonly live with undeveloped brain tissue and consequential intellectual disability.

Society and culture[edit]

Awareness campaign[edit]

Hydrocephalus awareness ribbon

September was designated National Hydrocephalus Awareness Month in July, 2009 by the U.S. Congress in HR373. The Resolution campaign is due in part to the Advocacy work of the Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation, Inc. Prior to July 2009, there was no Awareness month for this condition. Many of the hydrocephalus organizations within the United States use various ribbon designs as a part of their awareness and fundraising activities.

Exceptional case[edit]

Main article: Dandy-Walker syndrome

One interesting case of hydrocephalus was a man whose brain shrank to a thin sheet of tissue, due to buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in his skull. As a child, the man had had a shunt, but it was removed when he was 14. In July 2007, at age 44, he went to a hospital due to mild weakness in his left leg. When doctors learned of the man's medical history, they performed a computed tomography (CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, and were astonished to see "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles in the skull. Dr. Lionel Feuillet of Hôpital de la Timone in Marseille said, "The images were most unusual... the brain was virtually absent."[13] Intelligence tests showed the patient had an IQ of 75, below the average score of 100. This would be considered "borderline intellectual functioning", just above what would be officially considered mentally challenged.

The patient was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant, leading an at least superficially normal life, despite having enlarged ventricles with a decreased volume of brain tissue. "What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life", commented Dr. Max Muenke, a pediatric brain defect specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute. "If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side."[14][15][16]

Notable cases[edit]



  1. ^ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001571.htm
  2. ^ Oliver Adunka; Craig Buchman (11 October 2010). Otology, Neurotology, and Lateral Skull Base Surgery: An Illustrated Handbook. Thieme. pp. 353–. ISBN 978-3-13-149621-8. Retrieved 12 August 2013. 
  3. ^ Nimjee, SM; Powers, CJ; McLendon, RE; Grant, GA; Fuchs, HE (April 2010). "Single-stage bilateral choroid plexectomy for choroid plexus papilloma in a patient presenting with high cerebrospinal fluid output.". Journal of neurosurgery. Pediatrics 5 (4): 342–5. doi:10.3171/2009.10.peds08454. PMID 20367337. 
  4. ^ "wwww.spinabifidamoms.com". Spinabifidamoms.com. Retrieved 2014-01-29. 
  6. ^ Cabot, Richard C. (1919) Physical diagnosis , William Wood and company, New York, 7th edition, 527 pages, page 5. (Google Books)
  8. ^ Greenberg, Mark S (2010-02-15). "Handbook of Neurosurgery". ISBN 9781604063264. 
  10. ^ [1][dead link]
  11. ^ Warf, Benjamin C. (2005). "Comparison of 1-year outcomes for the Chhabra and Codman-Hakim Micro Precision shunt systems in Uganda: a prospective study in 195 children". J Neurosurg (Pediatrics 4) 102 (4 Suppl): 358–362. doi:10.3171/ped.2005.102.4.0358. PMID 15926385. 
  12. ^ a b c d e Aschoff A, Kremer P, Hashemi B, Kunze S (October 1999). "The scientific history of hydrocephalus and its treatment". Neurosurgical Review 22 (2-3): 67–93; discussion 94–5. doi:10.1007/s101430050035. PMID 10547004. 
  13. ^ "Man with Almost No Brain Has Led Normal Life", Fox News (2007-07-25). Also see "Man with tiny brain shocks doctors", NewScientist.com (2007-07-20); "Tiny Brain, Normal Life", ScienceDaily (2007-07-24).
  14. ^ "Man Lives Normal Life Despite Having Abnormal Brain". The Globe and Mail. July 19, 2007. Archived from the original on August 28, 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2012. 
  15. ^ "Man with tiny brain shocks doctors". New Scientist and Reuters. 20 July 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2013. 
  16. ^ Feuillet, L; Dufour, H; Pelletier, J (Jul 21, 2007). "Brain of a white-collar worker.". Lancet 370 (9583): 262. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61127-1. PMID 17658396. 
  17. ^ "Man of many tribes". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2014-01-29. 

External links[edit]

  • Guidelines for pediatric hydrocephalus
  • Fetal Hydrocephalus Information about diagnosis and treatment for fetal hydrocephalus from the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Fetal Hydrocephalus A site dedicated to helping parents and families of children with congenital hydrocephalus. In addition to the usual medical definitions of what hydrocephalus is, it focuses on how to take care of these children at home. It provides information on many aspects of hydrocephalus, including personal stories.