Ventricular drainage
Acute hydrocephalus requires urgent surgical treatment. In rapidly progressive or fulminant forms of hydrocephalus, external ventricular (intraventricular) drainage is installed.
During the operation, a thin soft tube is inserted through a small hole made in the skull into the lateral ventricle of the brain, which is connected to a sterile system and excess intracranial fluid is drained through it into an external reservoir.
Lumbar drainage
The second option for external drainage is lumbar drainage – it is used for the combined (non-occlusive) form of hydrocephalus, when the patency of the cerebrospinal fluid pathways between the brain and spinal cord is preserved.
In this method, a drainage tube is inserted into the subarachnoid space of the spinal cord through a lumbar puncture, and excess cerebrospinal fluid drains into a special reservoir, just like in the previous method.
