CEREBROSPINAL HYDRODYNAMICS

It is the purpose of this paper to present a statistical analysis of certain correlations of the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid in the human being as determined in previous clinical studies of cerebrospinal hydrodynamics. 1 MATERIAL AND METHOD The patients ranged in age from 16 to 48. The basic pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid in each case was determined after from fifteen to sixty minutes of continuous observation with the patient at complete rest in the horizontal position. The pressure index (the ratio of the number of cubic centimeters of spinal fluid removed to the resultant fall of cerebrospinal fluid pressure in millimeters of water) was calculated in each instance for a drainage confined to 15 to 40 cc. of fluid, since only within this range does the index of an individual patient remain relatively constant. 2 Seventy-seven of the two hundred subjects were patients with dementia paralytica, but