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Hydrocephalus is the name for any increase in the volume of fluid surrounding or inside the brain. Excessive pressure caused by excess fluid can cause long-term neurological damage, so prompt treatment, which usually involves diverting excess fluid to another body cavity, is imperative. Physicians at Children's Hospital Boston have been leaders and innovators in the treatment of hydrocephalus for decades. Building on work begun at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital nearby, doctors at Children's Hospital were the first to treat hydrocephalus in children by shunting excess fluid to the ureter in the 1950's.
Later shunt designs diverted the excess fluid to the belly cavity, where it could safely be absorbed. Children's Hospital neurosurgeons helped design and test several versions of the externally programmable shunt, which allows the shunt's operating pressure to be changed without requiring another surgery. Today, Children's neurosurgeons regularly perform endoscopic - or minimally invasive - third ventriculostomies, a procedure which can effectively cure hydrocephalus which results from blockage in the fluid passages.
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