Comparison of Benefit and Survival for Different Etiologies of Adult Patients With Hydrocephalus Between Programmable Cerebrospinal Fluid Ventricular Shunt and Non-programmable Cerebrospinal Fluid Ventricular Shunt

Relatively high revision rates up to 32% of CSF shunting operations remained an unsolved problem for neurosurgeons. The cause of revisions were diverse, including overdrainage/underdrainage, shunting system obstruction, infection or technical skill related. Programmable valve (PV) has been shown as a solution to the high revision rate in pediatric hydrocephalus patients, but it remains controversial among adults. This study is to compare the overall revision rate, revision cause, and revision-free survival between PV and non-programmable valve (NPV) in adult patients with different hydrocephalus etiologies.

The investigators reviewed the chart of all patients with hydrocephalus receiving index ventricular CSF shunt operations conducted at a single institution in northern Taiwan from January 2017 to December 2017. Patients included in the study were followed up for at least five years. Statistical tests including independent t-test, Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used for comparative analysis, and Kaplan-Meier curve using log-rank test was performed to compare the revision-free survival between the PV and NPV groups