[Congenital hydrocephalus. A multicenter retrospective longitudinal study of newborn infants treated with shunts 1976-1985].

A multicentric retrospective evaluation of 54 children was performed who were born between 1976 and 1985 with a clinically recognisable hydrocephalus and thereafter shunted. The 4 topics of the study included: 1) Analysis of pregnancy, antenatal diagnostic procedures and parturition, 2) Preoperative evaluation and intraoperative findings, 3) Long-term follow-up and 4) Prognosis (actual status) of the 45 surviving patients at the end of the study (May 1987). Patients with neonatal hydrocephalus were observed in 11% of all children shunted during the same time in the hospitals included in this study. During this period the incidence of new cases did not decrease.