Epidemiologic, clinical and CT, aspects hydrocephalus among children from 0 to 15 years (apropos of 53 patients colligated at the university hospital Yalgado Ouedraogo)

The hydrocephaly is a disorder of hydrodynamics of cerebrospinal fluid appearing mainly by a macrocrany. The etiologies of this disorder are multiple. If several recent work made it possible to study their aspects in Burkina Faso, no study of this condition was undertaken until now. Objective: This study was then initiated to assess epidemiologic, clinical, CT aspects and post-operative evolution of hydrocephaly in children from 0 to 15 years. Material and methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study of 53 hydrocephalies collected over a 12-months period (January 1 to December 31, 2006) in various departments of the CHU YO. Results: The hydrocephaly is a not very frequent condition in the CHU YO (average monthly of 4.41 children), the average age of the children at the time of the diagnosis was 8.75 months with a male prevalence (sex-ratio of 1.52). Intracranial hypertension and macrosomia dominated clinical signs. The non communicating hydrocephaly was revealed with the cerebral CT in 52.80% of the children, while the tetraventriculary hydrocephaly occured in 47.16% of the children. Acquired hydrocephalies were due to infectious diseases (meningitis), intra-cranial space-occupying lesions and vascular causes and congenital hydrocephalies were due to malformations (congenital stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius and acral myelomeningoceles). The average duration of hospitalization was 18.47 days and 24 of the 53 patients benefited from a surgical procedure. Ten children benefited from a ventriculo-peritoneal derivation and six children benefited from a ventriculo-cisternostomy derivation. Among children operated by derivation, intracranial hypertension signs resolved in 91.3% of them. Conclusion: Cerebral CT makes it possible to establish etiologic diagnosis of the hydrocephaly of the child. The hydrocephaly of the child remains an invalidating disease, which generates medicosocial problems in our country. © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS.