Incidence of Communicating Hydrocephalus Following Intraventricular Hemorrhage Among Adult Patients Treated at a Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Study.

Introduction Intraventricular hemorrhage is a severe condition caused by bleeding within the brain ventricles. It is often due to trauma, tumors, vascular malformation, aneurysm, oxygen deprivation, or idiopathic. A common complication associated with intraventricular hemorrhage is hydrocephalus, which is the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles. Hydrocephalus can be classified as communicating or non-communicating. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence of communicating hydrocephalus after intraventricular hemorrhage. Methods This retrospective study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and included 52 adult patients treated between 2012-2022 who met the eligibility criteria. We examined the relationships among age, sex, length of hospitalization, presenting symptoms, co-morbidities, Evans index, Graeb score, Glasgow Coma Score, survival, and ventriculoperitoneal shunt complications through univariate and bivariate analyses. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to evaluate data distribution. Differences between groups were analyzed using the chi-square test for categorical variables and the Mann-Whitney U test for non-parametric variables. Results The median age of the participants was 54 years, with a male predominance (57.7%). Motor dysfunction was the most frequently reported symptom at presentation (48.1%). Among the 30 patients who developed hydrocephalus after intraventricular hemorrhage, 70% had communicating hydrocephalus. There was a substantial correlation between mortality and hydrocephalus type (P =0.020). Conclusion Intraventricular bleeding is associated with an increased risk of communicating hydrocephalus, with an incidence rate of 3% per person-year.