Some People Are Born With a Big Head

This post is about answering the questions "Where?", "Who?", and "How Often?" in regards to the population it affects.

Because Hydrocephalus (which I will now be abbreviating HC) is not a standalone disorder it does not have precise statistics. According to a Medscape article covering the surgical methods used to deal with HC (which we will go into later) when you take into account spina bifida in regards to it have a high chance of HC the incidence is about 2-5 per 1000 live births. Congenital HC also only includes a small portion of potential HC cases. The leading factors of non-congenital HC include head trauma, neuro tumors, intracranial hemorrhage, and infections in the brain. (Medscape, 2015)

Shows what HC might look like in an older child with sutures fully closed

It hard to explain the picture (Medscape, 2015) without being able to point at your screen for you but I will try. See the dark wobbly line between the brain and the skull? That is filled with extra fluids. Also in the very center the black spot there is part of the brain's ventricles, and usually it does have CSF there and is black, but it is not normally that large and swollen looking, as well as just below it near the cerebellum. 

According to the CDC in the United States about 1,500 babies are born with Spina bifida a year, which can often include HC. Health care costs can be quite high for these individual ranging from a couple thousand to well over a million dollars in the child's first year of life. (CDC, 2015). Spina bifida also appears to affect Hispanics more often than it does those of Caucasian or African decent. Lastly, according to research by John Hopkins Medical Center unterated hydrocephalus has a 50-60% mortality rate, but if the children survive after their first year of treatment most will go on to live a full life span. (John Hopkins, r.2016)

That raps up this post. Tune in next time as we tackle the pathophysiology of the disease, where we will see how and what damage it may cause and what that might affect in an individual. 

CDC, 2015. Data and statistics, spina bifida. retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/spinabifida/data.html

John Hopkins, Retrieved 2016. Hydrocephalus. retrieved from: http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/hydrocephalus.aspx

Medscape, 2015. Neurosurgery for hydrocephalus. retrieved from: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/247387-overview#a7