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[DLMO2]

I have a 16 year old daughter with Hydrocephalus. She had a revision May of 2002 and came out of it very badly. Ever since then she has been suffering from symptoms such as visual desterbances, headaches, lightheaded, and dizzyness upon standing for a long time, and tiredness. Her Orthostatics were tested in the ER where they concluded she was dehyderated and gave her Saline which was unsuccessful. Here Orthostatics were tested again by her GP and she said that there was a significant diffrence from laying to sitting and a smaller diffrence siting to standing but still above average, what does that mean? Also after being symptomatic for almost nine months we saw her Neurosurg. who said she was having tention headaches and not to worry about it. I also had to fight him to get her revision last year. What should be done? We are in the process of finding a new Neuro who is willing to work with us but she has been symptomatic for 11 months and it is getting old. Thank you for your help.

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-JT]

Significant decrease in blood pressure with standing from sitting as well as a compensatory increase in heart rate in many cases signifies a decrease in blood volume or overall fluid status (dehydration). This can occur when someone hasn't had enough fluid, is vomiting, or if the heart rate doesn't go up it may signify an autonomic problem. The fact that your daughter had such a rough time with the revision in May and is now having all of these symptoms is concerning that there may be something wrong with the shunt.  It could be overdraining, iunderdraining or even blocked. Get a neurosurgeon to do shunt films to make sure the actual hardware is intact.  There is also a special MRI to look at the flow of the CSF to make sure it's not blocked anywhere.  There are of course other possibilities like a shunt infection, or other non-shunt related issues causing her symptoms.  You'll need a good peds neuro or neurosurgeon to help you out. Good luck.

[ricardo.lopes]

How do I do to put my case in HELPS him?    

[ricardo.lopes]

Gentlemen,  
  
In first place I have to ask excuses for my English.  
I have a 35 year-old sister that recetimento had the information of having a hemangioma in the trunk cerebra. She went by a surgery, here in Brazil, with a duration of 12 hours. The doctors didn't get to remove the tumor, or better, they didn't get to remove anything of the tumor. They spoke that the tumor has a texture of shoe sole and it bleeds a lot. Then they decided to stop to see what to do.  
His/her recovery this good one but we don't know what to do. Do you know some similar case?  

[DLMO2]

Sorry, but another related question. I know it varies from patient to patient but is there any range of amount of surgeries can be preformed before the shunt needs to be switched to the other side of the body result of scar tissue? Last year when my daughter had her revision the surgeon found that the ventricular end of the shunt was stuck and he needed to quarterize it in order to get it out causing some minor bleeding. With surgery as a possibility I did not know if this would apply to her since this occurred last surgery and she has had two replacements of this same section of shunt.