Hydrocephalus was described more clearly by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates in the fourth century BC, while a more accurate description was later given by the Roman physician Galen in the second century AD.The first clinical description of an operative procedure for hydrocephalus appears in the Al-Tasrif (1,000 AD) by the Arab surgeon Abulcasis, who clearly described the evacuation of superficial intracranial fluid in hydrocephalic children. He described it in his chapter on neurosurgical disease, describing infantile hydrocephalus as being caused by mechanical compression. He wrote:
The skull of a newborn baby is often full of liquid, either because the matron has compressed it excessively or for other, unknown reasons. The volume of the skull then increases daily, so that the bones of the skull fail to close. In this case, we must open the middle of the skull in three places, make the liquid flow out, then close the wound and tighten the skull with a bandage. In 1881, a few years after the landmark study of Retzius and Key, Carl Wernicke pioneered sterile ventricular puncture and external drainage of CSF for the treatment of hydrocephalus. It remained an intractable condition until the 20th century, when cerebral shunt and other neurosurgical treatment modalities were developed.It is a lesser-known medical condition; relatively little research is conducted to improve treatment, and still no cure has been found. In developing countries, the condition often goes untreated at birth. Before birth, the condition is difficult to diagnose, and access to medical treatment is limited.
Intelligence tests showed the person had an IQ of 75, considered "Borderline intellectual functioning", just above what would be officially classified as intectually disabled.The person was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant, leading an at least superficially normal life, despite having enlarged ventricles with a decreased volume of brain tissue. "What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life", commented Dr. Max Muenke, a pediatric brain-defect specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute. "If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side." Notable cases
Ice hockey player Colby Cave had acute obstructive hydrocephalus due to a colloid cyst. Author Sherman Alexie, born with the condition, wrote about it in his semi-autobiographical junior fiction novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Prince William, Duke of Gloucester (1689–1700), probably contracted meningitis at birth, which resulted in this condition. Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (1793–1875) became emperor in 1835 despite various health issues including hydrocephalus and epilepsy. In the American folklore of the states of Ohio, Michigan, and Connecticut, an urban legend exists about the melon heads, the inbred descendants of families of people born with hydrocephaly. References
External links

Hydrocephalus at Curlie
Guidelines for pediatric hydrocephalus