Over-shunting associated myelopathy

Abstract

Intracranial hypotension typically presents following cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, but can be induced by CSF diversion. Classically, patients present with positional headache, but less common symptoms include neck pain and cranial nerve palsies. To our knowledge, the neurosurgical literature contains six reports of patients with symptomatic cervical, epidural venous plexus engorgement as the result of CSF shunting. The patient presented herein is a 26-year-old woman with shunt-dependent, congenital hydrocephalus. She presented with rapidly progressive cervical myelopathy following ventriculoperitoneal shunt revision. Imaging revealed engorgement of the cervical epidural venous plexus and mass effect on the cervical spinal cord. “Over-shunting associated myelopathy” is a rare complication of CSF diversion that should be familiar to physicians who routinely evaluate patients with intracranial shunts.