Ultrasonographic study of children suspected of hydrocephalus at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi.

Eighty Malawian children aged below 15 months who presented with rapidly enlarging head and were suspected of having hydrocephalus were investigated with anterior fontanelle ultrasonography at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), Blantyre. Of the 68 (85%) who were found to have hydrocephalus, 35 (51.5%) were post infective, 14 (20.6%) were associated with lumbosacral myelomeningocele, 13(19.1%) were post haemorrhagic and the rest probably congenital or idiopathic. The remaining 12 patients with macrocephaly but without hydrocephalus comprised six children with hydranencephaly, five with subdural effusion and one with achondroplasia. Ultrasonography of the head is thus a simple, quick, non-invasive, economical diagnostic tool in the management of macrocephaly and to a limited sense as effective as CT scan. Its increased use in the investigation of infantile hydrocephalus is therefore recommended in developing countries with limited resources and without sophisticated imaging techniques.