Mumps—A Cause of Hydrocephalus?

The patient reported here developed hydrocephalus insidiously secondary to aqueductal stenosis after having had mumps 20 months previously. Ours is the second example of this clinical coincidence of events. The experimental production of aqueductal stenosis in suckling hamsters infected with mumps virus by Johnson and Johnson alerted us to this possible interrelationship. Whether mumps virus is truly causal in this neurologic syndrome will depend upon serologic studies in other patients with aqueductal stenosis and the incidence of this specific type of obstructive hydrocephalus in patients who have been effectively immunized against mumps.