Trial reportJournal of neurosurgery. Pediatrics2025
Five-year outcomes after surgical treatment of infant postinfectious hydrocephalus in sub-Saharan Africa: results of a randomized trial.
Trial report in Journal of neurosurgery. Pediatrics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Global disparities in neurosurgical literature: a narrative review of underrepresentation of low- and middle-income countries and pathways to research equity.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Article
- Cerebrospinal fluid volume outperforms traditional measures for predicting treatment failure in infant hydrocephalus.Fluids and barriers of the CNS · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePostinfectious hydrocephalus (PIH) in infants is a major public health burden in sub-Saharan Africa. In a previously reported randomized trial, the authors found no significant differences in outcome between endoscopic versus shunt treatment, with stagnation in brain growth at 2 years after treatment. They now present the 5-year follow-up results of this cohort, assessing detailed developmental, quality of life, and brain volume outcomes.
methodsThe authors performed a trial at a single center in Mbale, Uganda, involving 100 infants (< 180 days of age) with PIH randomized to endoscopic third ventriculostomy plus choroid plexus cauterization (ETV/CPC) or ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) treatment. After 5 years, they assessed developmental outcomes with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Third Edition (VABS-3), quality of life with the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI-3) and Hydrocephalus Outcome Questionnaire (HOQ), and brain volume derived from CT scans.
resultsSixty-three infants were assessed for 5-year outcomes (35 ETV/CPC and 28 VPS, by intention to treat). There were no significant differences between the two surgical treatment arms in treatment failure (p = 0.39), VABS-3 scores (p > 0.52), HUI-3 utility scores (p > 0.37), HOQ scores (p > 0.18), or brain volume (raw p = 1.0, adjusted p = 0.24). There were strong correlations between VABS-3, HUI-3, and HOQ scores with brain volume adjusted for age and sex, and weaker correlations when adjusted for anthropometric measurements.
conclusionsThese results suggest that ETV/CPC and VPS treatment have comparable long-term outcomes for infants in medically resource-constrained environments. Furthermore, brain volume strongly correlates with developmental and quality of life metrics, emphasizing the need to focus on optimizing brain volume growth potential in infants with severe perinatal neurological insults such as infection and hydrocephalus.
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Registered trials
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