Pseudotumor Cerebri Support Group

Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) is a neurological disorder that is characterized by increased intracranial pressure, in the absence of a tumor or other diseases affecting the brain or its lining. Diagnosis requires brain scans and lumbar puncture. Characteristic symptoms are headache, transient visual obscurations or transient visual loss in one or both eyes usually lasting...

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/ Pseudotumor Cerebri Support Group

For anyone needing a shunt, please read this!!

TammyTooli777
TammyTooli777
If you are needing a shunt, then you need to get a cisternal shunt! Lumbar and ventricular shunts do NOT work for us. Lumbar shunts over drain, because they are located at the bottom of our spine and gravity causes them to over drain. And with ventricular shunts, they always get clogged. Our ventricles are normal sized, which is small, and so when the shunt drains spinal fluid, our ventricles collapse on the tubing which causes it to clog, then you have to have it replaced. I was having to have mine replaced every 4 months on average. I had an LP shunt with revisions, three VP shunts with revisions, and three VA shunts with revisions, before my NS decided that he couldn't keep doing that to me. My NS sent me to a University Hospital out of state to see if they had anything else that we could do, because he didn't want me to have to keep having my ventricular shunts replaced. The new NS had been doing cisternal shunts for 18 years, prior to my appointment. Well I had a CA, cisterno-atrial shunt placed seven years ago, and I have not had any problems since!! Please don't put yourself through all that I have been through! Find a NS that does cisternal shunts!
TammyTooli777
TammyTooli777
Oh and ventricular shunts were made for hydrocephalus patients, because their ventricles are large so they don't collapse on the tubing.
mary1973
mary1973
I see good to know if anything should ever happen
deleted_user
deleted_user
CISTERNAL SHUNTS: http://pediatrics.uchicago.edu/chiefs/inpatient/documents/PseudotumorShunt.pdf

Yes one type. Seems more are not performed because complications are serious and mortality is significant. Again interesting to note the one's lasting longest with least revisions are the simplest. Go figure.
TammyTooli777
TammyTooli777
That was an interesting read, but I still go with my research since mine has more than 5 patient cases. My NS had already been placing cisternal shunts for 18 years when I had mine done 7 years ago, and absolutely none of those patients needed revisions. And none of them had any complications like those mentioned in that article. I do admit that having my cisternal shunt placed was a lot harder for recovery, because you lose a lot of spinal fluid during the surgery and it takes days to build it back up. But with me having gone through a LP shunt and revision, three VP shunts and revisions, and three VA shunts and revisions, I would have gone right for the cisternal shunt first, if I would have known about them and the failure rates of the other types of shunts. In a heartbeat I would have!! So all I can do now is tell my story and let people know that there is another shunt that does work for PTCer's without having high failure rates and associated numerous surgeries.