Postmeningitic hydrocephalus in infancy. Ventriculography with special reference to ventricular septa

Postmeningitic hydrocephalus in infancy accounts for at least 30% (maybe even 40%) of all new paediatric hydrocephalics seen in the Cape Province. The causes of the marked racial preponderance are considered. Meningitis is more prone to cause a CSF pathway block at any site in infancy than later in life. On ventriculography ventricular septa in 23%, foramen of Monro obstruction in 13%, multiple CSF pathway block occasionally and intraventricular detritus causing filling defects and irregularities of the ventricular walls are the salient features. Birth trauma with intraventricular bleeding may on occasion cause similar changes.