Risk of failure in pediatric ventriculoperitoneal shunts placed after abdominal surgery

OBJECTIVEExperience has led us to suspect an association between shunt malfunction and recent abdominal surgery, yet information about this potential relationship has not been explored in the literature. The authors compared shunt survival in patients who underwent abdominal surgery to shunt survival in our general pediatric shunt population to determine whether such a relationship exists.METHODSThe authors performed a retrospective review of all cases in which pediatric patients underwent ventriculoperitoneal shunt operations at their institution during a 7-year period. Survival time in shunt operations that followed abdominal surgery was compared with survival time of shunt operations in patients with no history of abdominal surgery. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify factors associated with failure.RESULTSA total of 141 patients who underwent 468 shunt operations during the period of study were included; 107 of these 141 patients had no history of abdominal surgery and 34 had un...