Complications of Lumboperitoneal Shunts for Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

Abstract

For the past half century, the mainstay of cerebrospinal fluid shunting for normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) has been ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery. Lumboperitoneal (LP) shunt has been used occasionally and seemed to be associated with higher failure rates compared to ventriculoperitoneal shunts. There is no uniformity in the reporting of complication and surgical revision rates. Goals of this study were to understand better the complications and the causes of surgical revisions post-LP shunt insertion in NPH patients. Nine patients with NPH undergoing lumboperitoneal shunt surgery for the first time by the senior author at an academy tertiary-care institution were retrospectively reviewed. Presence of complications and surgical revisions were the two main outcome variables. Logistic regression analysis was used first to assess if there was a correlation between preoperative patient characteristics and complications and second to evaluate if there was any association between postsurgical complications and surgical revision.