Recently, Mr. Dong of Hunan has been walking unsteadily, his memory has declined, he does not know his family, and he often unties his urine on his pants, which makes his family have a headache! It turned out that Mr. Dong had a serious traumatic head injury due to a car accident three months ago, and after more than a month of rescue and treatment, he recovered very well and could already live normally. However, less than two months later, the above symptoms appeared, and the urology department of the local hospital was examined and found that there was no problem with the urinary system.
Mr. Dong finally came to the Department of Neurosurgery of the Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province ( Hunan Provincial Brain Hospital ) where he was hospitalized , and after a brain MRI examination , he found that Mr. Dong "had water in his brain".
Director Li Xin of the Department of Neurosurgery explained to the family that Mr. Dong's "brain water", in fact, is clinically known as "hydrocephalus", because too much fluid is stored in the brain, which is cerebral fluid, because of excessive secretion, insufficient absorption or circulatory obstruction of cerebrospinal fluid, when cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the ventricles and subarachnoid cavity, and continues to increase, often accompanied by increased intracranial pressure and its series of symptoms.
Hydrocephalus can be divided into obstructive hydrocephalus and communicative hydrocephalus, congenital and acquired hydrocephalus, acute and chronic hydrocephalus, progressive and resting hydrocephalus, primary and secondary hydrocephalus, high-stress and normal pressure hydrocephalus, and children and adults.
Mr. Dong is a normal pressure communicative hydrocephalus chronically secondary to head trauma, that is, the patient's intracranial pressure is normal, and imaging shows that the supratentorial ventricles are significantly dilated. The reason for its formation is that due to trauma or cerebral hemorrhage, etc., the cerebrospinal fluid is generated too much per unit time, or the reabsorption is reduced in unit time. Symptoms of hydrocephalus vary depending on the age of onset and by type. Mr. Dong's manifestation is the typical triad symptom of hydrocephalus, dementia, urinary incontinence and ataxia.
Treatment of hydrocephalus is mainly surgical treatment, followed by adjuvant drug therapy. For hydrocephalus like Mr. Dong, whose symptoms are gradually worsening, he first recommends a procedure called "ventricular peritoneal shunting", which is based on the principle of draining excess cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles to the abdominal cavity through artificial silicone pipelines, and using the strong absorption capacity of the peritoneum to absorb it.
In the end, Mr. Dong completed the operation, and the symptoms were completely relieved after the operation, and the operation effect was very good. He was discharged from the hospital three days after the operation. The doctor instructed him to remove the stitches in a week and then come to the hospital regularly for re-examination.
Experts further remind that patients diagnosed with hydrocephalus should not rush to the doctor, the vast majority of patients as long as they undergo active and formal treatment, the symptoms can be cured.
Contributed by: Xiong Zhiwei, Second Ward of Neurosurgery, Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province (Hunan Brain Hospital).
Editor: Liu Yuchen
Image: From the Internet, intrusion and deletion