Hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus is a condition where there is excess cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF), around the brain, usually because there is interference with drainage and subsequent re-absorption. When this occurs in the newborn, or in the infant before the bones of the skull have fused together, it causes gradual enlargement of the head (called macrocephaly). In the older child, after the closure of the fontanelles, the symptoms are of raised intra-cranial pressure: increasing headache, worse in the morning, nausea and vomiting, lethargy and progressive drowsiness. Untreated it may result in coma. It can result from congenital malformations of the drainage system, from scarring due to infection (after meningitis, for example), from the development of a brain tumour or as a result of haemorrhage. The treatment of hydrocephalus is, where possible, to remove the blockage (such as a tumour), or to drain the excessive cerebrospinal fluid into the abdominal cavity.
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