[Self-cured hydrocephalus following ventriculitis--clinical experience and experimental consideration (author's...

Dynamics of CSF circulation is often altered in the presence of intracranial pathology especially in hydrocephalus. Most neurosurgeons acknowledge that the status of hydrocephalus often changes regardless of the type of treatment. In the follow-up of hydrocephalic children who under-went shunting operation, not a few hydrocephalic children have been doing well in spite of shunt malfunction for a long period. Interestingly enough, we have experienced the children who need no longer shunt after shunt infection complicated by ventriculitis. These cases differ from so-called spontaneously "arrested hydrocephalus", in that the latter develops in not severe hydrocephalus during the course of natural history or after shunt not complicated by serious infection. Consequently, we define these cases "self-cured hydrocephalus" following ventriculitis. Recently we experienced a similar case as mentioned above at the Kyoto University Hospital. We reported the case and made some inquiry into pathogenesis of "self-cured hydrocephalus". We hope that further inventigation of the similar cases along with experimental studies might give us a key to establish a radical treatment for hydrocephalus.