The appearance of a baby in the family for moms and dads is not only a great joy, but also a huge responsibility. Parents should carefully monitor the newborn, visit the pediatrician at the appointed time, strictly follow all recommendations, and if any deviations in development are found, consult a doctor without delay. Newborn babies are often subjected to all sorts of diseases, one of which is intracranial pressure. At the heart of this disease is quite a serious pathology, which requires an urgent examination and immediate cure. In most cases, increased intracranial pressure occurs with hydrocephalus - edema of the brain. You may have a question - what is hydrocephalus of the brain in newborns, and how does the disease manifest itself?
The brain of a newborn consists of several ventricles communicating with each other. These cavities are filled with cerebrospinal fluid (cerebrospinal fluid). When this substance is produced too much, it fills the cavity with excess, this causes the development of dropsy, from which the quality of the brain and the general condition of the child deteriorates. The more this fluid, the correspondingly, the baby feels worse.
Causes of hydrocephalus in the brain of newborns
Hydrocephalus of the brain can develop in the fetus even in the womb with the defects of the brain and spinal cord, or after the transfer of some infectious diseases, for example, such as cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis, herpes. Modern methods of prenatal diagnosis are at a high level, and if the pathology still formed, ultrasound examination of a pregnant woman will find it on the 16-20th week of the child's development.
Hydrocephalus in newborns sometimes appears as a consequence of birth trauma, in most cases in premature infants.
Symptoms of the disease
Clearly expressed symptoms of hydrocephalus in children under 2 years of age are:
- accelerated growth of the head circumference - the cranial sutures of newborn babies have not yet grown stronger, have not grown together, and because of the large accumulation of fluid the bones part, and at once the difference in the proportions between the child's head and the body becomes visible;
- the change in the size of the large fontanel - its size significantly increases, and it begins to bulge, may not close in the due time.
In addition to these pronounced signs, one should pay attention to psychomotor development. An infant suffering from dropsy does not keep its head in due time. He practically lies all the time, does not know how to sit down on his own, and does not even try to get up to sit or stand. The baby is sluggish, unhappy. A healthy child at a certain age begins to show interest in everything that surrounds him - toys, objects, he responds to voices, smiles, etc. A child who suffers from hydrocephalus of the brain often experiences a severe headache, so he is phlegmatic, inert, he is not interested in anything from the surrounding things. The baby is crying, and crying starts, it seems, for no apparent reason, sometimes holding the pens for the head.
In children older than two years, hydrocephalus manifests itself somewhat differently than in young children. The first symptom of increased intracranial pressure in children older than two years is complaints of a constant headache, sometimes accompanied by nausea or severe vomiting, which is especially debilitating at night and in the morning. The second symptom is edema of the optic nerve, which appears due to pathological changes in the fundus. This disorder can easily diagnose an oculist, so try not to miss planned medical examinations of your baby.
Hydrocephalus is not the only disease that causes such symptoms. This can be a brain development disorder of the head, and a consequence of various tumor formations. Therefore, parents need to know that when complaining about any headache, especially accompanied by nausea and vomiting, the child should immediately be taken to a neurologist or neurosurgeon for examination.
In addition to the above two most important symptoms of hydrocephalus, there are several more signs of this disease. These include: increased leg tone and epileptic seizures.
Also here are violations in the endocrine system: lagging or premature puberty.
Hydrocephalus in older children can develop for various reasons. These are complications after serious diseases such as encephalitis, meningitis, malformations of the brain of the brain, genetic disorders, traumatic brain injury. Sometimes specialists can not determine the cause of hydrocephalus formation.
Treatment of the disease
Hydrocephalus is not an easy disease, it is rather complicated. But in modern medical practice, the treatment of dropsy of the brain of the head is set at a decent height.
If your child is diagnosed and confirmed, you should immediately contact a neurosurgeon for advice. Treatment of hydrocephalus is surgical in almost 100 percent. Therefore, it is the neurosurgeon who will determine the indications and contraindications to the operation. It is clear that all people are worried about the upcoming surgical intervention, the excitement of parents for their child in this case a hundred times more. But do not delay with the decision, because if you do not do the surgery on time, that is, immediately after diagnosing the disease, hydrocephalus can take the chronic chronic course, and in this case the treatment will be complicated. In addition, the state of constantly increased intracranial pressure leads to negative consequences in the development of the child, to the delay of the psychomotor functions in infants, which will then be more difficult to make up for.
The essence of this operation is to free the ventricles of the brain from an excess of cerebrospinal fluid. In modern medicine, to achieve this goal, it is common to use ventriculo-peritoneal bypass as the most effective method. It consists that the doctor from silicone catheters mounts the individual original system on which surpluses of a liquor from cranial cavities freely will move in an abdominal cavity for the further processing and deducing from an organism.
Such operations save hundreds and hundreds of lives of children. And most importantly, after this procedure the child gets rid of the headache, from other symptoms of hydrocephalus, which allows him to fully develop and lead a normal life, that is, to attend a kindergarten, school.