Evaluation of brainstem auditory evoked responses in congenital hydrocephalus.
Brainstem auditory evoked responses (BAER) were studied in 20 children with clinically diagnosed and CT-confirmed congenital hydrocephalus before and after shunt surgery. Ninety-five percent of the children showed abnormal responses preoperatively. Prolonged wave V latency was the most common abnormality, followed by increased interwave latencies. Total absence of evoked responses was more common in children with communicating hydrocephalus. Following shunt surgery 50% of cases returned to normal and 20% showed a significant improvement. Abnormalities persisted in 10% of cases. BAER abnormalities referrable to caudal brainstem dysfunction recovered first, following CSF diversion. Study of BAER is useful for identifying physiological brainstem abnormalities in hydrocephalic children and promises to be a sensitive non-invasive diagnostic tool for the detection of "non-infective complications" of shunt surgery, if performed serially during follow up.
Venkataramana
N K
NK
Department of Neurosurgery, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India.
Satishchandra
P
P
Hegde
A S
AS
Reddy
G N
GN
Das
B S
BS
D001933:Brain Stem / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000151:congenital* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008591:Meningomyelocele / Q000150:complications; D011184:Postoperative Period; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed