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Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunting

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Abstract

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunting has significantly improved the lives of patients with hydrocephalus. It was a major advance in the 1950s when safe implantable materials for the manufacturing of shunt tubing and valves were identified. CSF shunts, however, are not a cure for hydrocephalus. In most cases, the shunted patient is faced with a lifelong commitment to an implanted device with a high failure rate. Shunts fail for a variety of reasons including obstruction, infection, and mechanical failure. Efforts to identify alternative treatment strategies and a cure will continue; however, until a better treatment is found, CSF shunts remain the mainstay of treatment for hydrocephalus. It is critical to understand how shunts work and fail and to identify ways to improve shunt function. This chapter explores these topics in detail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas Children’s Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Houston, TX, USA

    William E. Whitehead

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  1. William E. Whitehead
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Correspondence to William E. Whitehead .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurological Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis, MO, USA

    David D. Limbrick Jr.

  2. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA

    Jeffrey R. Leonard

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Whitehead, W.E. (2019). Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunting. In: Limbrick Jr., D., Leonard, J. (eds) Cerebrospinal Fluid Disorders . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97928-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97928-1_16

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