• Acta neurochirurgica · Apr 2014

    Overcoming CSF overdrainage with the adjustable gravitational valve proSA.

    • Christoph A Tschan, Sebastian Antes, Alexandra Huthmann, Sonja Vulcu, Joachim Oertel, and Wolfgang Wagner.
    • Department of Neurosurgery, Saarland University Medical Center and Saarland University Faculty of Medicine, Homburg/Saar, Germany, christoph.tschan@uks.eu.
    • Acta Neurochir (Wien). 2014 Apr 1; 156 (4): 767-76; discussion 776.

    BackgroundDespite progress in shunt valve technology, CSF overdrainage is still one of the most frequent complications in shunt-treated hydrocephalus. Particularly with regard to young and adolescent patients, treatment of manifest overdrainage is complicated by several hardly influenceable factors such as increasing height and mobility. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic efficiency of the new adjustable gravitational valve, proSA.MethodsSixty-four shunt-treated young hydrocephalus patients aged 1.8-41.4 years (15.5 ± 10.5 years) suffering from clinical and/or radiological overdrainage underwent shunt revision surgery with the implantation of the new proSA valve. Clinical outcome after a 1-year follow-up period, pumping function of the valve chambers as well as the number of necessary postoperative valve adjustments were examined.ResultsFifty-five patients completed the study as planned. All reported a significant improvement of their clinical condition; 91 % described a complete resolution in symptoms related to overdrainage. Preoperatively, more than 85 % of the valve chambers showed no or very slow refilling with CSF. After a year of proSA treatment, more than 90 % exhibited a normal valve chamber function. During the follow-up period, a total of 136 valve adjustments were necessary. None of the proSA valves had to be surgically revised.ConclusionsThe postoperative adjustability of the opening pressure level is the advantage of the new gravitational valve. The good clinical outcome is attributed to the new valve technology. The proSA appears to be a promising shunt valve to overcome overdrainage in adolescent and adult hydrocephalus patients.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…