. A text-book of medicine for students and practitioners . although the third and fourth ventricles are quite often distendedalso. The wails of the ventricles are often strewn witli minute granulations,or thev present a reticular hypertrophy. The hydrocephalic fluid usually hasthe ai)pearance of colorless serum, and contains a very slight amount of al-bumen, if any. The specific gravity is about to The amount offluid nuiy be a quart or more; but, of course, there is a great variation in thisrespect in dillerent cases. Congenital hydrocephalus is often associated with other peculia
. A text-book of medicine for students and practitioners . although the third and fourth ventricles are quite often distendedalso. The wails of the ventricles are often strewn witli minute granulations,or thev present a reticular hypertrophy. The hydrocephalic fluid usually hasthe ai)pearance of colorless serum, and contains a very slight amount of al-bumen, if any. The specific gravity is about to The amount offluid nuiy be a quart or more; but, of course, there is a great variation in thisrespect in dillerent cases. Congenital hydrocephalus is often associated with other peculiarities ordefects in the structure of the brain, which we cannot mention hci-e. Clinical History.—Sometimes a child is born with hydroceplialus so fardeveloped as lo oeeasion dystocia. Usually, however, the parents notice nothingpeculiar about the child for some weeks. Then they are alarmed by the gradualswelling of the head. As a basis for determining abnormal size, we may men-tion that under normal conditions the circumference of the head at l)irth is. Fig. 211.—Chronic hydrocephalus (after Schlossmann). about 30 to 40 cm., at the end of a year al)out 45 cm., and from that age topuberty there is a gradual approach to a circumference of about 50 cm. Thepossible dimensions in clironie hydrocephalus have been already stated. Theincrease in circumference is often quite rapid, amounting in two or threeweeks to 1 or 2 cm. Usually the swelling is tolerably symmetrical, hutsometimes the gi-eater increase is in the antero-posterior diameter, making theskull dolichocephalic. At times the rate of expansion may be particularlyrapid, and then at other times it may seem to be suspended. That the fon-tanelles and sutures remain widely open has already been mentioned; some-times it is even possible to get fluctuation through them. An intravascularmurmur can now and then be heard in the head, but it has no great impor-tance with regard to diagnosis. The veins are often so greatly distended
Size: 2485px × 1006px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidtextbookofme, bookyear1912
