What are the symptoms of Hydrocephalus?
Hydrocephalus – Symptoms & Treatment Options
What are the non-surgical treatment options?
What are the surgical treatment options?
The symptoms exhibited by someone with hydrocephalus tend to change depending on when the syndrome starts, how fast the disease progresses and the personal physiology and reactions of the patient. The skulls of infants are still soft and not yet completely closed, these can expand to relieve pressure from accumulating CSF. Adults on the other hand, with hard and completely enclosed skulls, will feel the pressure from the CSF much sooner.
It is easier to diagnose or detect hydrocephalus in infants because it results in a speedy or sudden increase in head size, or an inexplicably large head. There could also be irritability, seizures, vomiting and sleepiness. As the condition increases, it would push on the nerves of the eyes, resulting in sunsetting. This is a condition that means the eyes are constantly cast downward, with the whites showing above the iris, because it is impossible or painful for the eyeballs to move to an upward gaze.
Older children and adults have different symptoms as they have a much more limited ability to accommodate for the increase in CSF. They may experience headache, nausea, blurred or double vision, vomiting, sunsetting of the eyes, difficulty balancing, urinary incontinence, gait disturbance as well as papilledema, a condition wherein the optic disk swells. Other symptoms include drowsiness, lethargy, stunted or stopped developmental growth, irritability, memory loss, or other changes in personality or cognition.
There are also different symptoms for normal pressure hydrocephalus. This type of hydrocephalus can lead to poor bladder control because of frequent urination or incontinence; difficulty walking; dementia and progressive mental impairment. Someone with this disorder may complain that their feet are stuck, and they may be observed moving slower than usual.
The symptoms for normal pressure hydrocephalus are often mistaken as other disorders because of similarities. This can be misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or Alzheimer’s disease. To check if the symptoms actually point to normal pressure hydrocephalus, brain scans like MRI or CT can be done. Procedures such as a spinal tap or lumbar catheter, intracranial pressure monitoring and neuropsychological tests can be done to confirm.
To diagnose hydrocephalus, doctors can employ different imaging processes to for the cranium. This includes ultrasonography, MRI, and CT scans. Pressure monitoring techniques can also be employed to check the levels of CSF in the brain. Because of the different manifestations and symptoms, a variety of tools may be used depending on the age, progress of the disorder and suspected problems with the brain or spinal cord.