ANTERIOR FONTANELLE PRESSURE MONITORING FOR THE EVALUATION OF ASYMPTOMATIC INFANTS WITH INCREASED HEAD GROWTH-RATE

We studied non-invasive intracranial pressure monitoring in 20 asympto matic infants with increased head growth rate. Both basal anterior fon tanelle pressure (AFP) traces and occurrence of pressure waves were an alysed and compared with normal range values previously established. E ight recordings were classified as pathological; cerebral imaging show ed subdural collections or ventricular dilatation in all cases. Five o ut of these eight infants further developed neurological deficits and/ or increase of the ventricular size, and required neurosurgical proced ures. Twelve infants had normal AFP traces; six of these had normal ce rebral imaging and six showed enlargement of subarachnoid spaces with normal ventricles. All of these 12 patients normalised their head grow th rate and remained asymptomatic. This observation suggests that AFP monitoring may be helpful in asymptomatic infants with increased head growth rate to identify a progressive intracranial process and the pot ential need for a neurosurgical procedure.