A Northwestern Medicine study suggests that SGLT2 inhibitors, often used for type 2 diabetes, may reduce excess cerebrospinal fluid in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus. This condition, which affects older individuals, typically requires invasive surgical treatment through shunts to alleviate pressure on the brain. The study highlights how nearly 20% of hydrocephalus patients also suffer from diabetes, and initial observations reveal that SGLT2 inhibitors can potentially help decrease ventricle size, offering a less invasive alternative for treatment.
There is, however, no pharmacological treatment currently approved to treat hydrocephalus. Additionally, nearly 20 percent of patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus also have type 2 diabetes and take sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors to manage their blood sugar.
Patients are typically treated with permanent ventriculoperitoneal shunts, which are surgically implanted in the front or back of the skull and are connected to a valve that diverts excess cerebrospinal fluid away from the brain and into the abdomen.
It’s a great procedure because it’s one of the few things you can do that actually reverses these symptoms.
Magill recently observed a reduction in the brain ventricle size in a patient with hydrocephalus who had a ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgically implanted.
Collection
[
|
...
]