Abstracts from Hydrocephalus 2023—the fifteenth meeting of the Hydrocephalus Society

A155 Trends in hydrocephalus and CSF dynamics disorders research: A qualitative analysis of the Hydrocephalus Society abstracts Linda D’Antona 1,2, Eleanor Moncour1,2, Kanza Tariq1,2, Lucia Darie1, Laurence Watkins1,2, Ahmed Toma1,2, Lewis Thorne1 1Victor Horsley Department of Neurosurgery, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, WC1N3BG, UK; 2Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, WC1N3BG, UK Correspondence: Linda D’Antona, linda.d’antona@nhs.netFluids and Barriers of the CNS 2023, 20(Suppl 2): A155Introduction: Hydrocephalus and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics disorders are a field of rapidly growing research interest. This qualitative research investigates the trends in this field through the meetings of the International Society for Hydrocephalus and Cerebrospinal Fluid Disorders (ISHCFD).Methods: This is a retrospective qualitative analysis of the published abstracts of the ISHCFD meetings. The data collection covered the period between 2015 and 2022. Key terms were identified through the screening of the latest (2022) abstracts book and reviewed by the authors. A word frequency analysis of the preselected words/terms was conducted for each year and quantified (word frequency proportion = N. word was mentioned in the abstract book / N. abstracts published). Terms indicating similar concepts were consolidated (e.g., ‘NPH’ and ‘Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus’), while terms with partial overlap separated (e.g., ‘Hydrocephalus’ separated from ‘Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus’).Results: A total of 774 abstracts, published for 7 ISHCFD meetings were analysed. 122 pre-selected terms were searched and only the most frequent selected for further analysis. The most represented diseases were Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) (43.9%) and hydrocephalus (42.3%), followed by idiopathic intracranial hypertension (10.3%), Chiari malformation/syringomyelia (2.7%), LOVA (0.5%) and spontaneous intracranial hypotension (0.4%). There was a steady increase in the interest in Chiari malformation since 2017. Another interesting trend was the decrease in reports about hydrocephalus relative to NPH between 2015 and 2016. The analysis of investigations revealed a growing interest in biomarkers, optic nerve assessments and the DESH sign, in addition a steady decline of lumbar punctures was observed since 2019. The analysis of treatments confirmed ventriculoperitoneal shunts as the most popular (41%) followed by stenting (26%), lumboperitoneal shunts (20%) and ventriculoatrial shunts (11%); however, a significant steady decline was noted in the interest in stenting from 2016.Conclusions: This qualitative research highlighted interesting trends in the research for hydrocephalus and CSF disorders.