International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 18 (1989) 21-30 Elsevier 21 PEDOT 00601 Audiological findings of shunt- treated hydrocephalus in children Heikki Liippbnen ‘, Martti Sorri ‘, Willy Serlo 2 and Lennart von Wendt 3 Depariments of ’ Otola~ngology and 2 Paediatrics, University of Oulu, Oulu (Finland) and ’ Nordic Council for Arctic Medical Research, Oulu (Finland) (Received 9 December 1988) (Revised version vived 19 April 1989) (Accepted 15 June 1989) Key words: Hydrocephalus; Shunt surgery; Audiological finding; Sensorineural high-frequency hearing loss zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Abstract 47 hydrocephalic children (mean age 10.4 years) were examined on average 7.9 years after initial shunting. The etiology of hydrocephalus was classified into 5 groups as follows: perinatal intraventricular hemorrhage 19, congenital obstructive hydrocephalus 15, intracranial cysts 5, severe intracranial anomalies 4 and central nervous system infections 4 children. Audiological examination included pure-tone audiometry, tympanometry, registration of stapedius reflex thresholds and adapta- tion. A sensorineural high-frequency hearing loss was found in 18 (38%) of 47 examined shunt-treated hydrocephalic children, and 11 of the losses could be classified as the retrocochlear type. The differences of the mean hearing thresholds between the etiological groups of childhood hydrocephalus were minimal. Introduction Disturbed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation leads to an accumulation of CSF, a condition which is generally called hydrocephalus. After the introduction of a valve-regulated shunt, to ensure unidirectional CSF flow [16] shunting has emerged as the main therapeutic measure in the management of hydrocephalus during infancy and childhood [5]. Although shunting has immensely improved the overall Correspondence: H. Ltjppanen, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Oulu, Kajaanintie 52, SF-90220 Oulu, Finland. 0165-5876/89/$03.50 0 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.