Hydrocephaly in pediatric patients. Clinical manifestations.

Abstract

Hydrocephaly is a pathology appearing with relative frequency in pediatric patients. The success of its treatment depends on the quickness of its diagnosis, avoiding that way irreversible complication. We faced this work with the purpose of facilitating the clinical diagnosis of the hydrocephaly. The reviewed bibliography is consistent with the idea that hydrocephaly clinic is determined for the increase of the Intracranial Pressure (ICP). Its more or less influence on the patients depends on the age, on the closing or not of the cranial sutures and on the nature of the obstruction, independently of the patients' sex or race .In newborns, the most frequent signs and symptoms were: the increase of the cephalic perimeter, curved fontanels with or without head increase, separated sutures, vomiting. In older children it appears with migraines, vomits, vision changes, strabismus, uncontrollable ocular movements, los of coordination, movement upheavals and mental disorders.