Infants can also suffer from Hydrocephalus, but the reasons for the condition and its subsequent effects are slightly different.
In infants, the Cerebral Aqueduct doesn't always develop properly. There are cases in which the aqueduct is underdeveloped, or completely absent. In both cases, CSF starts to build up before the birth of the child. The Choroid Plexus is fully developed and functioning before a child is born, and the Ventricular system is pumping CSF, before a child even sees the light of day.
If the Cerebral Aqueduct is underdeveloped, chances are the infant will be fine. Some CSF is still flowing, and an increase in cranial pressure is not as detrimental to an infant as it is to an adult. Infant skulls do not fuse until after birth, therefore the infant is in less immediate danger. If cranial pressure increases, an infant’s brain can expand and the skull will expand with it. Pressure is more effectively dissipated because the brain is not completely encapsulated.
In infants with completely undeveloped Cerebral Aqueduct, the risk of damage is higher, but still minimal in comparison to a situation in which the skull has completely fused. The complete lack of a Cerebral Aqueduct in infants requires more drastic actions. With underdeveloped Cerebral Aqueducts, certain steroids and medications can induce aqueduct development or expansion. When the Cerebral Aqueduct does not exit, a bypass tube must be surgically inserted to let the CSF pass.
There have been a select few instances in which Hydrocephalus has resulted in the explosion of infant heads. In an unimaginably small number of occurrences, defects in the cerebral aqueduct were discovered extremely late in pregnancy. The heads of these infants had expanded to ridiculously dangerous sizes due to the build up of CSF.
In theses cases, physicians opted to deliver the babies prematurely via cesarean section (C section) in order to conduct much needed bypass surgery of the Cerebral Aqueduct. During the cesarean itself, or directly after the cesarean, the head of these infants exploded due to the removal of hydrostatic pressure imposed by amniotic fluid in the uterus. The amniotic fluid kept the heads from bursting, and once the fluid was no longer posing resistance, the heads gave way.
Hydrocephalus, or “water on the brain” is caused by a simple and easy to fix problem, but it has some devastating impacts. It can cause mental retardation, alter a person’s personality, and even cause the heads of infants to explode. All this happens just because a little gap in the midbrain isn't allowed to do its job, and let CSF flow.
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