Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy versus Ventriculo-Peritoneal Shunt in Management of Congenital Hydrocephalus in First Year of Life

Abstract

ydrocephalus can be broadly defined as a disorder in the formation, flow or absorption of CSF, which leads to an increase in the volume of this fluid in the CNS. It can also be classified as communicating and non-communicating according to the presence of full communication between the ventricles and subarachnoid space. Hydrocephalus in infants may be either congenital without apparent cause or secondary to hemorrhage, infection, or tumor requiring management and intervention. Disorders of the cerebrospinal fluid increase the size of the brain, causing a rise in the intracranial tension leading to a continuous increase in the size of the head in infants and affects the various brain centers, cranial nerve nuclei and vital centers. Hydrocephalus could be complicated by mental or motor developmental retardation specially if the condition is part of syndrome like chiari malformations or dandy walker malformation, also if the treatment was delayed increased tension might lead to herniation of the brain stem with compression over the vital centers which is fatal. The best way of management of hydrocephalus is cerebrospinal fluid diversion surgeries, either by endoscopy that based on making a hole in the floor of the third ventricle to drain the cerebrospinal fluid directly into the subarachnoid