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This article is part of the supplement: 48th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida

Oral Presentation

VP shunts – what is the commonest complication?

T Sri Paran , I Koenigs and R Fitzgerald

11 Clareville Road, Harolds Cross, Dublin, Ireland

author email corresponding author email

from 48th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida
Dublin, Ireland. 23–26 June 2004

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research 2004, 1(Suppl 1):S25doi:10.1186/1743-8454-1-S1-S25

The electronic version of this abstract is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.cerebrospinalfluidresearch.com/content/1/S1/S25

Published:

23 December 2004

Oral Presentation

Whilst a VP shunt is an effective way of draining CSF in hydrocephalus, complications are still a significant problem. We retrospectively analysed charts of 94 children between the years 1993 and 2003 to estimate the common complications. The commonest complication was shunt blockage (30%). This was followed by shunt fractures (4.2%). Infection was 2.2%. When a shunt malfunctions due to blockage, the commonest area of blockage was within the intraventricular component (90%). Most children who presented with shunt blockage needed more than one revision. Overall 44 revisions were carried out in 23 children. Protein levels of CSF did not correlate with frequency of blockage. In an endeavour to establish whether shunt blockage is related to intraventricular catheter position, an analysis is made of the available images. Furthermore, the recent literature in relation to shunt blockage is also reviewed. There were no shunt fractures below the age of three years, and the routine policy of doing an X-ray shunt series should be discouraged in children less than 2 years old with unitised shunts.

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