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Neurosurgery Without TearsOccult spina bifida may be completely hidden as its name implies and often found incidentally. Its presence may be suggested by the cutaneous features listed below. Its often asymptomatic when it occurs alone, but when it is associated with diastematomyelia, tethered cord, lipoma, or dermoid tumour, it presents as tethered cord syndrome with the neurological [...]
Neural tube defects (NTDs) like spina bifida are often a source of worry to parents of affected children.
While its aetiology is not particularly certain, it is generally known that folate deficiency in a woman puts her at a great risk of having a child with a neural tube defect.
In recognition of the role of folic [...]
Spina bifida is also known as spinal dysraphism.
The condition may be occult or difficult to detect (spinal bifida occulta) or relatively clinically obvious (spina bifida aperta or spina bifida cystic).
The following definitions are useful in understanding the various entities grouped together as spinal dysraphic conditions.
1. Spina bifida occulta: congenital absence of a spinous process and [...]
Clinical presentation of hydrocephalus depends on the age of the affected individual and the rate of CSF accumulation. In infants, the most striking feature is the abnormal increase in the size of the head whereas in adults, it commonly presents with features of raised intracranial pressure.
In young children, hydrocephalus could present with any combination of [...]
The conditions causing hydrocephalus include the following:
• Excessive CSF production by the choroid plexuses
o Choroid plexus papilloma
• Blockage in the CSF circulation, either within the ventricle, or on the outside of them
o Aqueductal stenosis
o Tumours
o Chiari malformation especially types I and II
o Dandy-Walker malformation
o Intraventricular haemorrhage
o Meningitis
o Spinal tumour
o Myelomeningocoele
• Impairment of CSF absorption by the arachnoid villi.
o Meningitis
o Subarachnoid haemorrhage
The causes enumerated above could also be classified into [...]
There are several ways of classifying hydrocephalus. A simplified method of classification is as follows:
1. Based on time of acquisition
a. Congenital (cause present before birth), e.g
i. Aqueductal stenosis
[...]
Hydrocephalus is a neurosurgical condition in which there is excessive accumulation of brain water (called cerebrospinal fluid) in the head. Hydro = water; cephalus = head. It is rare but certainly present in our community.
Many of the children, and alas! Adults that you see around with big heads suffer from this condition. Do not stigmatize [...]
