Acquired hydrocephalus. I. A clinical analysis of 160 patients studied for hydrocephalus.

A total of 160 patients suspected of having acquired hydrocephalus were studied either by quantitative isotope ventriculography (QIV) or by lumbar isotope cisternography (LIC). Of these patients, 56 had hydrocephalus. Mental deterioration, gait disturbances, ataxia, spasticity, and incontinence were most frequently present in the hydrocephalic patients, but none of the signs or combinations thereof are pathognomonic of acquired hydrocephalus. These signs are independent of the intracranial pressure (ICP) and the type of hydrocephalus. Surgical shunt procedures were in most cases followed by the disappearance of mental deterioration, gait disturbances, ataxia, and spasticity.