Causes and symptoms of mild external cerebral hydrocephalus in adults

1 General information about the disease

Moderate external hydrocephalus of the brain is manifested for various reasons and in different forms. Symptoms look like a violation of the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid of varying degrees of complexity. It is difficult to diagnose such a problem, neurologists and neurosurgeons are engaged in its treatment. Some believe that brain hydrocephalus appears only in children, that it is an innate pathology.

Despite the sufficient percentage of babies suffering from dropsy, it is impossible to unequivocally attribute hydrocephalus to congenital childhood diseases. Expressed moderately external hydrocephalus is difficult to determine in the adult state, this requires qualified doctors and special equipment that is not available to some polyclinics. Diagnosis is assisted by rheoencephalography and echoencephalography.

The danger of misdiagnosis is that the patient is being treated in a psychiatric ward and a neurological hospital after a serious head injury or stroke. Worse, if after a stroke a patient is discharged with an incorrect diagnosis, without checking for hydrocephalus.

Statistics threatening: more than 25% of patients undergoing surveillance in the neurosurgical hospital, with additional examination, a moderate external hydrocephalus of the brain is diagnosed. Intervention allows you to eliminate it. A high percentage of cases when after surgery adult patients returned to their usual life and after a period of rehabilitation they were able to go to work.

Moderate external hydrocephalus of the brain is now treated with external drainage, the ventricles of the brain are supplied with thrombolytic agents. They help to reduce the likelihood of death from acute hydrocephalus in hemorrhage.

Among the causes of the disease can be called any pathology of the central nervous system. Many diseases give complications in the form of hydrocephalus. Most often it is caused by: hemorrhagic stroke, oncology in the brain, encephalopathy, hypoxia, alcohol dependence and various infectious diseases. Moderate external hydrocephalus of the brain arises from the trauma, as well as from hemorrhages, aneurysms and damage to the ventricles of the brain. There are congenital and acquired form of hydrocephalus.

2 The form of the disease

The acute form of the disease is accompanied by high intracranial pressure, when the head hurts more in the mornings, then during the day the intensity decreases. Disorders of the digestive system may occur in the morning, including nausea and vomiting. If after a vomiting a headache became less, it is an obvious sign of problems with a brain. But the most dangerous symptom of hydrocephalus is drowsiness: it is a direct sign of increased intracranial pressure, which will soon lead to a sharp deterioration in neurological symptoms.

In cases of compression disorders of the elongated part of the brain, hydrocephalus affects the heart and respiratory organs, with death most often occurring. Outward replacement hydrocephalus is allocated. It is characterized by deformation of the brain volume in the direction of decrease. The place occupied by the brain cells is filled with cerebrospinal fluid. External hydrocephalus substitution is dangerous in that it does not appear long, for several years. This is due to the peculiarity of the form and the filling of the space of the brain with liquid.

Chronic moderate hydrocephalus differs from acute form. The first signs come in 2 weeks after the received trauma of a brain or disease-provocateur. The patient falls into a condition in which he does not distinguish the night from the day, the sleep state is disrupted catastrophically, memory suffers. A person becomes inactive, down to loss of interest in what is happening. In case of complications and in time of not recognized disease, intellectual activity is violated in man, it responds out of place, the reactions are unnatural, apraxia of walking is detected, in rare cases urinary incontinence occurs.

3

pathology is diagnosed. External hydrocephalus substitution and other forms are determined by brain imaging. Check the contours of the brain, the ventricles, scan the skull and subarachnoid space. Neurosurgeon and neuropathologist look at the size and shape of the ventricles, check for cysts or tumors. MRI allows you to put a more accurate diagnosis, identify the form and extent of the disease. Vodian can only be determined with the help of these examinations. To clarify the doctors resort to the x-ray of the skull base tanks, it allows you to see the direction of the cerebrospinal fluid.

It is important to examine the blood vessels that feed the brain.

For this, a contrast agent is injected into the artery to see defects in the vessels. The patient is collected neuropsychological data, questioned in a special way, trying to identify abnormalities in the brain. External replacement hydrocephalus is detected using echoencephalography.

Hydrocephalus can be treated. Doctors use diuretics, saluretics, ethacrylic acid, furosemide. In the treatment there is a solution of plasma substitutes, albumin. Vasoactive drugs, venotonicks, glucocorticosteroids help. For relief of symptoms, analgesics are used, for example Ketoprofen, as well as remedies for migraines. Hydrocephalus tries to be cured conservatively, but if the clinical symptoms are manifested, then there is no way to do without surgery. Intraventricular hemorrhage is a direct indication for urgent surgery, otherwise the patient will experience irreversible violations and death.

Surgical intervention is always fraught with risks to the health of the patient, and when working with the brain, even more so. Neurosurgeons do not open the cranium for no apparent reason, since any careless movement can deprive a person of sight, speech, etc. Modern technologies offer a low-traumatic method when the operation passes quickly through neuroendoscopy. The technique is popular among Western doctors, in Russia it is not sufficiently used even in large medical centers.

4 How is the treatment of the disease

Treatment with antibiotics is relevant only in the first stage of hydrocephalus. But because of the complexity of the diagnosis and the lack of expression of symptoms, the disease can quickly develop into the next stage, when antibiotics do not help. Endoscopic surgery is considered the most modern and safe. Doctors create a special canal using surgical methods. But also it is not absolutely safe, as during the operation it is possible to bring an infection.

Endoscopy requires frequent intervention, due to the constant shunting the patient develops side effects. Doctors can set up external drainage so that the cerebrospinal fluid exits through it, but this method has a number of contraindications and all the same side effects.

An insignificant stage of hydrocephalus is treated with a conservative combined method, medications are combined with manual therapy, it is necessary to have a course of massages or therapeutic physical exercises.

In most cases, the disease gives complications due to late treatment. It is worth to carefully treat migraines, head injuries, the occurrence of vomiting or frequent nausea. In the usual rhythm of life, you can easily take these symptoms for another illness, while your brain is in danger. Do not risk, contact your doctor as soon as the symptoms start to worry. And after a mechanical head injury, be sure to check after 2 or 3 weeks.