[Hydrocephalus in the pediatric age group: considerations on a series of 245 shunted patients].

A series of 245 hydrocephalic patients in the pediatric age group who underwent 544 surgical shunting procedures is reviewed in this paper. The subsequent average of 1.5 operations per patient appears therefore significantly low, when compared with the Literature data. The authors emphasize that this result may be due mainly to the fact that all the surgical procedures were performed by the same surgeons, even if two other concepts appear extremely important in this regard: the great care in prevention of shunt infections and the use of one-piece shunting devices. A pattern for the "clinical surveillance" of hydrocephalic children is proposed and the neuropsychological follow-up of the series is described in the paper. Authors conclude that serious damage to cerebral parenchyma due to intracranial hypertension related to the hydrocephalic condition may be avoided by an accurate selection of patients to be operated on, a correct surgical timing and a careful postoperative control.