A history of the treatment of hydrocephalus.

At a time when the intrauterine diagnosis of hydrocephalus is commonplace and pioneering efforts of antenatal therapy are evolving, review of the chronology of treatment of this disorder becomes pertinent. The history of therapy of hydrocephalus may be divided into three phases. The first two largely involved accumulation of basic anatomical and pathophysiological information. The last phase dates only from the 1950s and may be considered an era of rapid technical development. This account discloses the obligatory relationship between useful therapy and basic knowledge.