Abstract

MACHADO, Hélio R. et al. Infantile hydrocephalus: long-term results in a series of 102 children with special emphasis on brain sonography. Arq. Neuro-Psiquiatr. [online]. 1990, vol.48, n.1, pp. 82-90. ISSN 0004-282X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0004-282X1990000100012.

A personal series (in 94% of the cases) of 102 children who underwent 170 procedures (1.66 procedures/patient) for hydrocephalus has been followed for 5 1/2 years (Jan-S3 to Jun-88). Most of the children were under two years of age (80%) and in these cases brain sonography was the examination of choice for both diagnosis and follow-up (307 examinations, 4.4 per patient). Only occasionally was computed tomography necessary for better study in these cases. Our results suggest that there was no significant difference between our cases and those published in the litterature concerning the number of procedures/patient (1.66)., infection rate (5.2%), mortality rate (6.8%) and intellectual performance. We recommend the use of brain sonography both in diagnosis and follow-up studies for hydrocephalic children since this examination is innocuous, inexpensive and easy to perform by neurosurgeons. Also it provides a good interaction between the examiner, the child and the parents, which is of utmost importance for the comprehension of the disease by the parents and early diagnosis of complications by the neurosurgeon.