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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
Hydrocephalus is caused by excess fluid buildup in your brain.
Your brain is the consistency of gelatin, and it floats in a bath of cerebrospinal fluid. This fluid also fills large open structures, called ventricles, which lie deep inside your brain. The fluid-filled ventricles help keep the brain buoyant and cushioned.
Cerebrospinal fluid flows through the ventricles by way of interconnecting channels. The fluid eventually flows into spaces around the brain, where it's absorbed into your bloodstream.
Keeping the production, flow and absorption of cerebrospinal fluid in balance is important to maintaining normal pressure inside your skull. Hydrocephalus results when the flow of cerebrospinal fluid is disrupted — for example, when a channel between ventricles becomes narrowed — or when your body doesn't properly absorb this fluid.
Defective absorption of cerebrospinal fluid causes normal pressure hydrocephalus, seen most often in older people. In normal pressure hydrocephalus, excess fluid enlarges the ventricles but does not increase pressure on the brain. Normal pressure hydrocephalus may be the result of injury or illness, but in many cases the cause is unknown.
- Hydrocephalus fact sheet. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hydrocephalus/detail_hydrocephalus.htm?css=print. Accessed July 17, 2009.
- Fishman MA. Hydrocephalus. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 17, 2009.
- Golden JA, et al. Developmental structural disorders. In: Goetz GD. Textbook of Clinical Neurology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: W.B. Saunders; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/150609977-3/864809399/1488/253.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-3618-0..10028-1_1756. Accessed July 17, 2009.
- About hydrocephalus: A book for families. Hydrocephalus Association. http://www.hydroassoc.org/docs/AboutHydrocephalus-A_Book_for_Families_Dec08.pdf. Accessed July 17, 2009.
- Meningococcal: Who needs to be vaccinated? http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/mening/who-vaccinate.htm. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Accessed July 17, 2009.
