Combined Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy and Choroid Plexus Cauterization as Primary Treatment of Hydrocephalus for Infants in Egypt

Background: Children depending on shunt in developing countries is a very serious problem. The usage endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) with bilateral choroid plexus cauteri-zation (BCPC) had shown promising resultsin hydrocephalus treatment than ETV alone in infants below 2 years of age. Aim of Study: A retrospective study to evaluate the success of ETV-CPC as primary management of hydrocephalus in in-fants in Egypt. Patients and Method: Twenty three consecutive infants with hydrocephalus requiring treatment for hydrocephalus with ETV-BCPC. Patient data was collected retrospectively. Our re-sults were assessed using life table analysis. Results: Twenty three patients had a completed ETV-BCPC with mean follow-up 13.4 months. The ETV-BCPC procedure was successful in 13 patients (56.5%) from 1st operation, two cases operated within six months reopen stoma (8.7%) and eight cases (34.8%) fail procedure end by shunt. The operative mortality rate was 0%, and there were two cases infections, two cases control convulsions and one case CSF leak end by shunt. Conclusions: Combined ETV/BCPC was better in treating hydrocephalus in infancy avoiding shunt dependence in the ma-jority.