1. Hydrocephalus/Water Head By: Hunter Murray

2. CAUSES Hydrocephalus is due to a problem with the flow of the fluid that surrounds the brain. This fluid is called the cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF. It surrounds the brain and spinal cord, and helps cushion the brain. CSF normally moves through the brain and the spinal cord, and is soaked into the bloodstream. CSF levels in the brain can rise if: The flow of CSF is blocked It does not get absorbed into the blood properly Your brain makes too much of it Too much CSF puts puts pressure on the brain. This pushes the brain up against the skull and damage brain tissue

3. Target Population Babies are the most common humans to get this disease because it usually occurs in the development process.It affects 1 in every 500 people.

4. Symptons In infants with hydrocephalus, it causes the fontanelle (soft spot) to bulge and the head to be larger than expected. Early symptoms may also include: Eyes that appear to gaze downward,Irritability,Seizures,Separated sutures,Sleepiness,Vomiting Symptoms that may occur in older children can include: Brief, shrill, high-pitched cry,Changes in personality, memory, or the ability to reason or think,Changes in facial appearance and eye spacing,Crossed eyes or uncontrolled eye movements,Difficulty feeding,Excessive sleepiness,Headache Irritability, poor temper control,Loss of bladder control Loss of coordination and trouble walking,Muscle spasm,Slow growth, Slow or restricted movement,Vomiting

5. Prognosis Without treatment, up to 6 in 10 people with hydrocephalus will die. Those who survive have different amounts of intellectual, physical, and neurological disabilities.The outlook depends on the cause. Hydrocephalus that is not due to an infection has the best outlook. People with hydrocephalus caused by tumors usually do very poorly.Most children with hydrocephalus that survive for 1 year will have a fairly normal life span.

6. Treatment of Hydrocephalus While there is no known cure, there are two forms of surgical treatment currently used to treat hydrocephalus. In the last 50 years, there have been advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of hydrocephalus, however, long term health outcomes for individuals with hydrocephalus remain unpredictable. Often repeated neurosurgical operations are necessary to treat hydrocephalus. It also is important to recognize when treatment is failing and to stay current with doctors and developments even when things are going well. The most common treatment for hydrocephalus—and the most common procedure performed by pediatric neurosurgeons in the United States—is surgical implantation of a device called a shunt. A flexible tube and valve system, a shunt drains cerebrospinal fluid from the brain to another part of the body.

7. Famous Person with Hydrocephalus Billy Graham was diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus in 1992,but it still hasn't been well known in the 2 decades since.His shunt wasn't placed for several years,but when it was it helped with the symptoms of his Parkinson's.It was another several years before he had to have a revision in 2008.Since then he's continued to have health problems,but that's normal for someone his age.

8. Hospitals/Doctors Sixty years ago, Boston Children's Hospital became the first hospital in the world to treat children with hydrocephalus by rerouting excess fluid from the brain into another body cavity. In the next few years,, physicians in Boston Children's Hydrocephalus Program have designed and tested the next generation of shunting devices, including the externally programmable shunt,helped refine the use of minimally surgical techniques to more effectively treat hydrocephalus while minimizing stress and shortening the aftercare process for patients. The head of this hospitals team is Benjamin Warf.

9. Work Cited National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. WWW.ninds.nih.gov WWW.Childrenshospital.org