How to Determine Hydrocephalus Causes

Hydrocephalus is a condition whereby the assemblage of cerebrospinal fluid is overabundant within the ventricles of the brain. Hydrocephalus occurs when the flow of cerebrospinal fluid is obstructed or if there is an over-secretion of the fluid, resulting in the body's inability to absorb the amount produced into the blood stream. There are two types of hydrocephalus including obstructed or non-commuting and commuting.

Things You'll Need

• Doctor

Instructions

1. Know that hydrocephalus can be caused by tumors, cysts, blood clots, infections, and abnormalities during development. When hydrocephalus is acquired at birth, it is congenital, and when it occurs later in life, it is acquired.

2. Understand that there are many different causes of Hydrocephalus that are either genetically based or developmental in nature. The developmental causation can also be rooted within genetics as the genes for hydrocephalus were not passed down from the parents, but rather altered by an environmental factor, resulting in a genetic change that leads to developmental problems.

3. Know that the blockage that leads to hydrocephalus could be within the ventricle (internal), obstructive (non-commuting) hydrocephalus, or commuting hydrocephalus (external), outside the brain where the re-absorption of the fluid is not occurring properly. In babies born with hydrocephalus the cause is impossible to determine.

4. Understand that the major causes of hydrocephalus are spina bifida, brain birth defects, brain infections, brain tumors, brain trauma, and brain hemorrhages. Hydrocephalus could also occur due to cysts, dural sinus thrombosis, choroid pluxus papilloma, blockage of the subarchnoidal space, vascular lesions, intraventricular hemorrhage, chiari malformations, aqueductal stenosis, and the genetic disease Bickers-Adams syndrome.

5. Go to a doctor if your baby's head seems to be growing too rapidly and she will be able to diagnose the problem. Older children will not demonstrate this particular sign of hydrocephalus, but will, instead, have intense cranial pressure that will lead to a slew of symptoms from headaches to vomiting to vision problems. In adolescents and adults, hydrocephalus presents as dementia.

Tips & Warnings

• Most of the time hydrocephalus presents due to brain trauma or a serious issue surrounding the brain, so most people will take this seriously and doctors will be able to diagnose hydrocephalus fairly easily.