HYDROCEPHALUS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

HYDROCEPHALUS - Essay Example Hydrocephalus is a pathological state in which the amount of the cerebrospinal fluid rises from the normal amount in the ventricular system (Mitchell et al 2007). Hydrocephalus can result due to many causes which mainly result in altering the normal pathway of the cerebrospinal fluid. The mechanisms include a rise in the formation of the fluid from the choroid plexus or if the re-absorption of the fluid becomes altered. These two reasons are not very common and hydrocephalus is more frequently associated with a blockage in the normal circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid (Govan et al 1995). Hydrocephalus mainly results due to other diseases that affect the human body. The causes may be associated with pathologies of the ventricular system or they may be due to causes outside the ventricular system. Meningitis associated with bacteria, sarcoidosis, trauma to the head and hemorrhages within the subarachnoid space are highlighted as the causes not within the ventricular system that result in the blockage of cerebrospinal fluid. Tumors, colloid cysts, and formation of abscess within the cerebellum, formation of hematomas within the cerebellum or the brain-stem and Arnold Chiari malformation are the intra-ventricular causes that result in hydrocephalus (Davidson et al 2009). Hydrocephalus can affect people from all age groups. It affects infants, people in their old ages as well as adults. Women with increased weight have a risk of developing this condition and these women do not present with any other underlying cause. If a young child is affected with hydrocephalus, the head increases in size. This is owing to the fact that the sutures in the child are open which provides space for the spread of the cerebrospinal fluids. In adults, the sutures are closed and it is because of this that the patient does not present with an increase in head size (Davidson et al 2009; Mitchell et al