How long do you think it will be before I have it revised and, What should I look for

[jennifer]

My last post told you that I have had the same VP shunt since I was 6, and a lot of you think that I will have to have it revised again, and I appreciate the advise. How long do you think it will be til the next revision. I am enjoying myself on here.

[Braindrain]

It's hard to say. I think it would depend on what causes the revision.
In '94, I found out that the reason for the revision was that my shunt
wasn't working. Now, whether it stopped working in '94, or it stopped
working long before that and the pressure built up, I really don't know.
Back then, my symptoms were: headaches/"heaviness" in my head,
balance/coordination problems, increased seizures and vision problems.

When that shunt disconnected last year, my symptoms were: severe
headaches, balance/coordination problems and nausea/vomitting. I
didn't have an increase in seizures and my vision wasn't affected. As
a matter of fact, my mother told my NS that my symptoms in December
were very much like the symptoms I'd had as a baby. But, my symptoms
in '94 were completely different.

My NS told me something in December and I hope I'm remembering this
correctly: when a shunt is placed in an infant, it's expected that that
first shunt will last a long time (not counting complications, of course).
In adult patients, the shunt may not last as long, because (and this
is the part I'm having trouble remembering), the brain isn't as compliant
in adults as it is in children. I hope I'm saying that right.

The shunt disconnection that I had in December was a freak thing.
It "simply" disconnected from the valve in the back of my head.

But, everybody's different and the circumstances are different. What
happened to me may not happen to you or anybody else.

Hope this helps!:)

[LIZARD]

There is no way to predict this, unfortunately. Some of us will fail slowly enough to be able to schedule surgery at a more convenient time, while others may fail very quickly and need surgery within hours, as I did last time. It all depends on the reason for the malfunction/failure and how complete it is.



LIZARD :)

[KathiDG]

I agree...it was almost a year between when I started having headaches and my neurosurgeon decided to do testing after sending me to a neurologist because he thought they were migraines...that was either July-August 2005, and he finally realized the darn thing wasn't "working up to its potential" as he said...after surgery, headaches pretty much stopped, so I think it was flat out dead...but my symptoms weren't "textbook severe" like he was used to...I wasn't vomiting...

[AMBush]

My daughter had several revisions in her first 18 months, then went for years without a problem. Unfortunately, when she was 10 she had two revisions in 4 months.

It really is hard to predict. Our experience has been that the NS will not replace the shunt just to replace it. As long as it appears to be working properly, there is no need for surgery. Other's have explained shunt failure symptoms, and my daughter has experienced most of those related to a malfunction. She's a little challenging, though, because she had a failure with out symptoms once, too. It was a very gradual malfunction, the pressure built slowly over about 6 months. We were completely unaware that anything was wrong until her regular CT scan showed the ventricles were 9 times larger than they had been 6 months earlier. The NS chose to replace the shunt, his concern was that she could get very sick very quickly if the pressure much higher.

My hope for you is that you are one of the blessed ones who can go for many more years without a revision.

Take care,

[Lemontree]

I've had mine for 29 years..Yea! VP's!

The last time, things went wrong they went really wrong...I'm not even all sure what was going on..I was 8 years old and had a headache, and a temp that was off the charts...I wasn't eating and was lethargic. Mymom knew something was wrong when she made my favorite spaghetti and I didn't eat it.

I was brought into ER and admitted and they started running all kinds of tests..Turns out I had some sort of infection..Meningitis/sepsis..records say both...

Sooo my shunt was taken out--just halfway I think-- until the infections cleared up..the docs hoped to leave well enough alone and hoped that I didn't need my shunt anymore. I was in the hosptial for several weeks getting things taken care of with antibiotics etc. and then sent home

Wound up going back in after the summer months because I was leaking fluid in my neck from the left over tubing, and then a new VP was put in.

They never quite fig. out what caused the prob. with me.. In the end, the shunt may not even of had a prob..they may have just taken it out so that the infection didn't channel all over the place via the shunt? ( I remember stabbing my foot with a pictch fork and not telling anyone..this may have been the introduction of the infection?) Again, I was 8 & didn't think!

I think that it's hard to tell when these things are going to go wrong..Stressing and worrying about WHEN isn't going to do you any good. Just live your life, take cae of yourself, don't be too reckless, and make sure you have health insurance!!

Lemontree

[Penny W.]

Shunt problems vary from person to person. Some people have a lot of revisions in their lifetime, others not so many.

I don't think anyone should look for anything before it happens (a hard lesson to learn), rather look for it after.

I had my first V-P shunt in 1980 and the next one not quite 2 1/2 years later. No revisions since.

Regards,
Penny.
(battling the possible prelude to a shunt revision since late April this year).