About the permanent drainage of the ventricle of the brain with its dropsy

In many intracranial diseases, it was precisely the symptoms of increased cerebral pressure that forced one to resort to surgical intervention, which gave excellent results: for example, removal of hematomas and ligation of the vessel in case of bleeding from the arteria meningea media or opening of brain abscesses.

Equally severe symptoms of pressure on the brain can be caused by accumulations of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain, as is observed in cases of acute head dropsy (acutus int.) e.g. in meningitis serosa or tuberculosa, as well as in chronic congenital and secondary internal dropsy of the brain. The thought of surgeons has long been directed in this direction. Back in 1881, Wernicke experimentally proved the usefulness of ventricular puncture in such cases. Bergmann was the first to perform this operation in 1888. Since then, many surgeons with varying happiness have performed this operation.