This article is part of the supplement: 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida .

Oral presentation

Controversies about the adjustment of gravitational valves in respect to a new device

Christoph Miethke¹ , Christian Sprung² and Michael Kiefer³

¹  GmbH & Co.KG, Ulanenweg 2, 14469 Potsdam, Germany

²  Neurosurgical Department University of Berlin, Charité, Germany

³  Neurosurgical Department University of Homburg, Germany

author email corresponding author email

from 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida
Cambridge, UK. 30 August – 2 September 2006

Cerebrospinal Fluid Research 2006, 3(Suppl 1):S2doi:10.1186/1743-8454-3-S1-S2

Published:	21 December 2006

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

The essential drawback of available adjustable devices for the treatment of hydrocephalus is the fact that the adjustment is valid for both positions of the patient. If the opening pressure is increased to decrease the risk of over drainage in the upright position of the patient the same adjustment leads to a very high opening pressure while the patient is lying and consequently to an under drainage in the horizontal position. On the other hand the lowering of the opening pressure automatically increases the risk of subdural effusion as soon as the patient is in upright position.