DOES A SHUNT HAVE TO BE REPLACED AS THE CHILD GETS OLDER IF THEY HAVE HYDROCEPHALUS?

Question

DOES A SHUNT HAVE TO BE REPLACED AS THE CHILD GETS OLDER IF THEY HAVE HYDROCEPHALUS?

Answer 1

Yes it does.  As the child grows the shunt will need to be re-sized.

Answer 2

The most common treatment for hydrocephalus is the surgical insertion of a drainage system, called a shunt. It consists of a long flexible tube with a valve that keeps fluid from the brain flowing in the right direction and at the proper rate. One end of the tubing is usually placed in one of the brain's ventricles. The tubing is then tunneled under the skin to another part of the body where the excess cerebrospinal fluid can be more easily absorbed — such as the abdomen or a chamber in the heart.

People who have hydrocephalus usually need a shunt system for the rest of their lives, so additional surgeries may be needed to insert longer tubing to match a child's growth. Revisions to the shunt also may be needed if the tubing becomes blocked or infected.

Another surgical option — ventriculostomy — is sometimes used when there's an obstruction of flow between ventricles. In the procedure, your surgeon makes a hole in the bottom of one of the ventricles, to allow the cerebrospinal fluid to flow toward the base of the brain, where normal absorption occurs.

Answer 3

And to add to that, depending on when it was put in, depends on how soon it will need to be resized. E.g., a shunt in a one year old will need to be resized much sooner than a shunt in a twelve year old, as the one year  old will grow much more in a shorter period of time.