Do You See What I See?

This post will cover Signs and Symptoms of Hydrocephalus

So now we are going to look at the signs and symptoms, but first I want to help those who may not know learn the difference between a sign and a symptom. A sign is something you look for, it is objective and based on a fact. A symptom is something the patient experiences, it is subjective and more of a feeling. 

So signs of HC are things like increased ICP. So with increased ICP the telltales are bulging of the fontanels, cerebral vein distension, and eventually swelling of the head and expansion of the skull bones. This can on occasion cause the symptoms of irritability and restlessness in the newborn. as well as vomiting, but these are not consistent amongst newborns, and reliance on these to determine the presence of increased ICP is highly undesirable. Other signs can be determined with imaging as we discussed last post. With imaging it is very easy to determine the extent of the increased CSF. 

Overall the easiest and most obvious sign to interpret is rapidly expanding head circumference in a neonate. 

Here is a fact sheet published by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. 

Hydrocephalus Fact Sheet (2016)

This publication has excellent information regarding hydrocephalus while also offering breakdown of each category. Also noted are other signs and symptoms such as sleepiness, downward deviation of the eyes, and seizures. (It should be noted that this sheet compacts both signs and symptoms into one section called "Symptoms", but remember there is a difference!). 

I don't want to oversaturate my blog with similar pictures so I won't be adding and pretty colors to this post. But the fact sheet is an excellent resource so check it out if you are interested in learning more. 

That raps up this post. Tune in next post for some really awesome treatment options for HC and how docs go about implementing and following up on them. 

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (2016) Hydrocephalus Fact Sheet. retrieved from: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hydrocephalus/detail_hydrocephalus.htm