Causes and symptoms of edema of the brain - the detection of abnormalities
The cerebral cortex is an organic brain damage, unofficial and popular in the people's name hydrocephalus. The essence of the disease - in violation of the balance of cerebrospinal fluid, which is a kind of "shock absorber" and protector of the brain and spinal cord.
In a healthy person, cerebrospinal fluid, also called cerebrospinal fluid, constantly circulates without accumulating in excess, but with hydrocephalus this balance is disrupted.
The cerebral cortex in adults and children is accompanied by excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the cerebral ventricles, which leads to increased intracranial pressure, constant headaches and other unpleasant symptoms.
If the hydrocephalus is not surgically treated, it can lead to irreversible brain damage.
The main causes of the disease
Modern physicians distinguish two types of hydrocephalus: closed and open. The causes of closed hydrocephalus lie in some kind of mechanical obstacle that does not allow the cerebrospinal fluid to circulate freely in the brain.
The cause of this condition can be a previous infection, congenital malformation, swelling, meningitis. In addition, closed hydrocephalus can become a consequence of a stroke, when a blood clot creates a physical barrier to fluid outflow.
Open hydrocephalus is a violation of absorption of cerebrospinal fluid. The cause may also be cerebral hemorrhage, trauma, congenital malformation.
Both types of dropsy are most common in newborn babies.
In most cases, the disease is the result of serious infectious diseases that the mother suffered during pregnancy during the period of the central nervous system of the fetus.
Symptomatology of
pathology As mentioned above, edema of the brain in newborns is a very common congenital disease that is treated surgically at an early age.
Skull bones in newborn children are mobile, unlike the bones of the skull of an adult, so the main signs of a dropsy of the brain in children are the disproportionate size of the head.
The child's head becomes too large in relation to the body, a characteristic vascular pattern appears on the skin due to increased intracranial pressure. The child can not hold his neck and begins to lag behind in development, does not eat well, is irritable. Atony of muscles is also observed.
Various methods are used for diagnosis: magnetic resonance imaging, encephalogram, x-ray, measurement of intracranial pressure.
The cerebral cortex in adults shows itself differently: the size of the head does not change, but there are significant delays in intellectual development.
The musculoskeletal apparatus of such patients is weak, coordination is disturbed, and disturbances in autonomic nervous activity are observed. Almost all adults with hydrocephalus have some degree of mental retardation.
In the mornings, an adult who has a dropsy, headaches. There is frequent nausea, heaviness in the head, typical of morning vomiting. Disease of dropsy is often accompanied by vegetative-vascular dystonia, nervousness, meteosensitivity.
Because of the increased intracranial pressure, patients react with a strong headache for the slightest changes in weather and atmospheric pressure. Often violations of cardiac activity: tachycardia, increased heart rate, chest pain.
Treatment of dropsy
To date, the only possible method of treatment of this disease is a surgical operation. Conservative treatment does not allow reducing the amount of fluid in the ventricles of the brain, so all children with hydrocephalus are prescribed surgical treatment.
The essence of the operation to treat dropsy is to create an artificial outflow of liquor. Neurosurgeons create a new channel through which fluid from the ventricles of the brain will move to other organs.
As a rule, the drainage system exits its ducts into the abdominal cavity or to the right atrium. Cerebrospinal fluid is diverted from the brain and absorbed into the blood. Thus, the balance of cerebrospinal fluid in the body is stabilized.