Long-term outcome of endoscopic third ventriculostomy in obstructive hydrocephalus.

[hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of sylvius]

This multicentric study reports on 140 patients who underwent endoscopic third ventriculostomy for obstructive hydrocephalus in four Italian neurosurgical centers between 1994 and 1999 . Its aim is to define the long -term outcome of these patients many years (6 -12 ) after the initial procedure . The study includes both children and adults ; the etiology of the hydrocephalus was malformative aqueductal stenosis in 88 cases (62 .8 %), compression by tumors of the mesencephalic and pineal regions and posterior fossa in 45 (32 .2 %) and post-infection aqueductal stenosis in 7 (5 %). The ETV was performed by using the standard technique . The overall rate of good results (shunt-independent patients with clinical remission or improvement ) was 87 .1 %. Eighteen patients (12 .9 %) required a shunt because of ETV failure . The long -term outcome of ETV in this study was not influenced by the patient 's age and the etiology of the hydrocephalus (although cases secondary to cisternal hemorrhage and infections are not included ). Other series including cases with long follow-up are analyzed . In conclusion , ETV results in a high rate of good long -term outcome in patients with obstructive hydrocephalus . Because postoperative failures occur early , clinical and radiological control studies must be performed particularly in the first years after the neuroendoscopic procedure .

Diseases
Validation

Diseases presenting "hydrocephalus" symptom

achondroplasia

alexander disease

canavan disease

congenital toxoplasmosis

harlequin ichthyosis

hirschsprung disease

homocystinuria without methylmalonic aciduria

hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of sylvius

krabbe disease

monosomy 21

proteus syndrome

severe combined immunodeficiency

sneddon syndrome

von hippel-lindau disease

wiskott-aldrich syndrome

This symptom has already been validated