The Most Effective Treatment Option for Hydrocephalus

An estimated one to two out of every 1,000 babies are born with hydrocephalus, and about 1 million Americans are living with the condition. While hydrocephalus can be life-altering, if not life-threatening, there is a highly effective solution — ventriculoperitoneal shunting.

As a leading neurosurgeon in hydrocephalus, Miami Neuroscience Center’s Dr. Aizik L. Wolf has extensive experience performing this potentially lifesaving procedure. 

Here, we look at why ventriculoperitoneal shunting is so successful and how we perform this procedure.

The challenge of hydrocephalus

Hydrocephalus is when too much cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) builds up in the brain's ventricles. 

Under normal circumstances, your body produces enough CSF to protect and cushion your brain and spine. As the CSF travels down from your brain and into your spinal cord, it gets reabsorbed into your bloodstream. And each day, your body produces enough CSF to balance out the reabsorption.

When you have hydrocephalus, the clear fluid builds up in cavities called ventricles in your brain, eventually placing pressure on sensitive brain tissues. Unchecked hydrocephalus can cause brain damage and even death.

Thankfully, we’ve found a way to relieve the pressure and keep the CSF from building up too much.

Getting the fluids to flow through shunting

With the ventriculoperitoneal shunting (VS) procedure, we place a drainage system — a shunt — that leads from the ventricles in your brain to your abdomen. This system drains any excess CSF directly into your abdomen, where it's processed naturally through your digestive tract.

To ensure that your brain and spinal cord benefit from the right amount of CSF, the shunting system features a pressure valve and an anti-siphon device. So, when CSF starts to build up in the brain's ventricles, the system reacts and drains off the necessary amount to maintain the correct pressure.

To perform this procedure, we place you under general anesthesia, and it takes Dr. Wolf about an hour to an hour and a half to place the shunt. He makes only tiny holes to place the tube into your ventricles. From there, he guides the tube down to your abdomen beneath the surface of your skin so there's no outward sign of the drainage system.

After Dr. Wolf installs the shunting system, you can expect to spend at least one night in the hospital, and maybe more, depending upon the circumstances. The good news is that most hydrocephalus symptoms resolve themselves very quickly after Dr. Wolf places the shunt.

We recognize that this is a brief explanation, so if you have more questions about the ventriculoperitoneal shunting procedure, please don’t hesitate to contact our office in South Miami, Florida, to schedule a consultation.