Hydrocephalus and its treatment | Boston Children’s Hospital

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Using live illustrations, Benjamin Warf, MD, Neurosurgeon at Boston Children's Hospital, explains hydrocephalus and options for treating it, including an innovate operation he pioneered called endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV).
Hydrocephalus, a buildup of excess cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, is a fairly common condition in children. As Dr. Warf explains in our Pediatric Playbook series, it is caused by a blockage of fluid movement out of the brain’s fluid spaces (ventricles). This can result from a tumor, brain hemorrhage, infection, or a congenital defect in the fluid passages.
Unless it’s treated, the buildup of fluid puts a pressure on the brain that can impair brain function and can even be life-threatening. The most common treatment for hydrocephalus is surgical placement of a shunt, a tube that drains the excess fluid and routes it into tubing in the child’s belly.
Because shunting often requires a number of operations to repair or replace the shunts as children grow, Dr. Warf has developed a surgical procedure that can avoid the need for shunts in many children. Called ETV, it passes an endoscope into the brain to make small opening in a membrane in the base of the ventricle. This bypassed the obstruction and allows the trapped fluid to escape.
For children who are good candidates for this operation, it can be a cure for hydrocephalus. For more information, call 617-355-6008 (international: [phone]).