A New Ventricular Catheter for the Prevention and Treatment of Proximal Obstruction in Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunts

Abstract

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt malfunction is most commonly caused by obstruction of the ventricular catheter by choroid plexus. Such ventricular catheter obstructions remain a major unsolved problem, despite improvements in materials, catheter design, new valves, and increased emphasis on precise techniques favoring optimal catheter placement. Shunt malfunction demands elective and often urgent open surgical intervention to revise the shunt system. Such revisions require a general anesthetic in addition to the operative procedure and are followed by a minimum hospitalization of 2 to 3 days. Our experience with hundreds of shunt revisions prompted novel ideas for the development of a new ventricular catheter to treat or prevent this common and previously unresolved difficulty effectively.