Impact of ventricular-peritoneal shunt valve design on clinical outcome of pediatric patients with hydrocephalus: Lessons learned from randomized controlled trials

Reid Hoshide; Hal Meltzer; Cecilia Dalle-Ore; David Gonda; Daniel Guillaume; Clark C Chen

doi:10.4103/sni.sni_11_17

Impact of ventricular-peritoneal shunt valve design on clinical outcome of pediatric patients with hydrocephalus: Lessons learned from randomized controlled trials

Surg Neurol Int. 2017 Apr 5:8:49. doi: 10.4103/sni.sni_11_17. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Reid Hoshide¹, Hal Meltzer², Cecilia Dalle-Ore², David Gonda¹, Daniel Guillaume³, Clark C Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
² Division of Neurosurgery, Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, California, USA.
³ Department of Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Abstract

Hydrocephalus is one of the most common diseases managed by pediatric neurosurgeons. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunting has been the mainstay of durable treatment for hydrocephalus for many decades. There are two main categories of shunt designs for regulating the extent of CSF diversion: (1) Fixed-parameter valves and (2) adjustable valves. Furthermore, these valves can also function with and without an anti-siphon device. Here, we review randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined the impact of these valve designs on the clinical outcome of pediatric patients afflicted with hydrocephalus. All three RCTs suggested no significant differences in clinical outcome as a function of shunt design. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: Hydrocephalus; pediatrics; shunt.

Publication types

Editorial