About The Webinar
Hydrocephalus can be defined broadly as an active distension of the ventricular system of the brain. Hydrocephalus can be congenital or acquired. Dogs with congenital hydrocephalus show clinical signs from birth or first few months of life. However, some animals may not develop clinical signs of encephalopathy until adulthood.
Commonly, dogs with congenital hydrocephalus have dome-shaped head, opened fontanelles, large calvarial defects and bilateral ventrolateral strabismus. The main clinical signs include obtundation, behavioral abnormalities, difficulty with training, decreased vision, blindness, circling, pacing and seizure activity.
Acquired hydrocephalus can be mainly caused by decreased volume of brain parenchyma, in which the loss of brain tissue leaves an empty space filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or by obstruction to CSF flow (i.e. intracranial mass-like lesions).
Diagnosis of hydrocephalus is usually made with the help of advanced imaging techniques (MRI, CT) that give information about the type of hydrocephalus and the hydrocephalus that requires treatment.
Therapy may be medical of surgical. Surgical treatment is generally recommended when an animal is showing worsening clinical signs or shows no evidence of improvement or deteriorates when being treated medically. Medical therapy may stabilize or improve signs in the short term, but often it is not successful in the long-term. A number of drugs (acetazolamide, furosemide, omeprazole, glucocorticoids, mannitol) may be used but their effectiveness is doubtful. In dogs surgery is performed by placing a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. The overall prognosis after surgical therapy is guarded to good.
In this talk, Luca will focus on the diagnosis and treatment of congenital hydrocephalus with particular emphasis to the surgical therapy by showing a few case examples.
