Adult hydrocephalus

✓ Eighty adults with hydrocephalus were treated with a shunt operation. Twenty-four had nonabsorptive hydrocephalus with obstruction at the level of the basal cisterns and 56 had hydrocephalus plus cerebral atrophy without apparent obstruction to the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Thirty-four patients improved but in only 16 (20%) was the improvement dramatic. The material was analyzed to identify criteria for future case selection. History, evidence of tissue damage, and thickness of cerebral mantle were considered important. Antibiotics reduced infection rate from 19% to 3%.