Hi, @bstechman, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You'll note I merged your post here to this post, "Brain injury white matter, encephalopathy, and encephalitis." I did this so the members already discussing similar topics would see your message and so that you could read through what the members have already shared. If you are replying by email, you can click on VIEW & REPLY to be brought to the new location of your post.

Please meet @jeancary @stephenluptak @uldiver @jenniferhunter @hopeful33250 and others who've been part of this discussion. Hoping they can add some thoughts about your husband being a possible candidate for normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) spinal fluid testing and possible shunt surgery, and the surgery's success rate for correcting ventricle pressure.

Also, this Mayo Clinic information about hydrocephalus may be helpful: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hydrocephalus/symptoms-causes/syc-20373604

@bstechman, what symptoms has your husband been experiencing?

@bstechman Hello and welcome. I wanted to share what I know about shunt surgery. My father in law had that done when he was elderly and he did just fine. We had to sit with him in his hospital room because he kept pulling out his IVs. He was suffering with Alzheimer's at the time and had been aggressive toward other people, so that is why they did the surgery because he had some increased pressure in his spinal fluid and an enlargement in a ventricle. Some of the aggression was probably from the Alzheimer's. I don't recall how long it took him to recover from the surgery, but it wasn't disabling to him. He wasn't really aware he had it done. He just wanted to get out of the bed and go somewhere. Maybe it was a week or two, and he was able to return to the nursing home Alzheimer's unit. My dad had a bur hole put in his head after his head injury (skull fracture) to relieve pressure, but for that, they induce a medical coma. That is a standard care after a head injury because brain swelling from the injury can kill you. That lasted about 2 and half weeks if I remember correctly, and there were no bad effects from the bur hole. He had some brain damage and recovered to a degree, but was never quite the same. He passed 2 years ago, and I still look after my mom.