Endoscopic cyst fenestration outcomes in children one year of age or less.

The use of endoscopic fenestration (EF) is becoming an increasingly common treatment for symptomatic intracranial cysts. Very little data exist regarding outcomes for this procedure in children 1 year of age or younger. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical outcomes of 8 children 1 year of age or less treated at our institution with endoscopic cyst fenestration. The mean follow-up was roughly 2.5 years. These data were combined with 17 other cases obtained from the published literature. EF was successful in rendering patients shunt-free or minimizing the number of ventricular catheters in 18 of 26 operations. There were 8 outright failures -- two in 1 patient. Given the risks and complications of cerebrospinal fluid shunting in children less than 1 year of age, we advocate the consideration of EF as initial treatment of symptomatic intracranial cysts.