Large Congenital Hydrocephalus:Extended Survival without Neurosurgery.

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATION: This work was presented at the 57th Quarterly Grand Rounds at Fairview Developmental Center, Costa Mesa, California on October 17, 2012.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Authors are grateful to Stephan Reynolds CRT, and Indira Makwana for records.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None of the authors has any conflict of interest with the information provided in this article.

ABSTRACT: We report the case of a 45-year-old patient with large congenital hydrocephalus. Patient was born prematurely at 26-weeks' gestation with a weight of 1.14Kg. His head-circumferences have been: Birth, 27.9 cms; age 3-months, 40.6 cms; 18-months, 74 cms; 36-months, 80 cms; current, 88.4 cms (normal adult: 52-58 cms). During infancy, his prognosis was considered "terminal" due to rapid progression of severe hydrocephalus; therefore no neurosurgical intervention was undertaken. At 18-months' age, he was admitted to our developmental center where he is presently comfortable and clinically stable. Due to habitual unilateral decubitus, his head is now markedly flattened on the right (deformational plagiocephaly), and disproportionately long and narrow (scaphocephaly: occipitofrontal length 36.8 cms, biparietal width 12.5; ratio 2.9). We credit patient's extended survival to diligent professional care.

INDICES USED: PubMed.