Post-traumatic hydrocephalus: the Cinderella of Neurotrauma

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Article highlights

• Post-traumatic hydrocephalus is not infrequent, but pathophysiology, diagnostic criteria, identification of treatment responders and treatment modalities remain unclear

• Very few papers have been published on this topic, and most of these papers deal with risk factors and natural history

• Lalou et al. published a paper on CSF dynamics analysis in patients with post-traumatic ventriculomegaly, showing these patients present a mean lower CSF outflow resistance compared with patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus that responded to shunt surgery

• Similarly, other studies tried to differentiate ventriculomegaly from an active hydrocephalus with CSF dynamics analysis, analyzing opening pressure, CSF outflow resistance and intracranial elastance.

• Patients with post-traumatic hydrocephalus who respond to surgery probably have a higher CSF outflow resistance, but this parameter alone is not sufficient to indicate or rule out surgery.

• Other studies are needed, since while patients are frequent, this topic seems to be of little interest, and therefore post-traumatic hydrocephalus remains an unfortunate Cinderella without a fairy-godmother.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

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Funding

This paper was not funded.