What is a shunt?
Today, the best and most effective treatment for hydrocephalus known is a surgical procedure in which a flexible tube called a shunt is placed into the childs CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) system. The shunt diverts the flow of CSF from the ventricles into another region of the body, most often the abdominal cavity or a chamber of the heart called the atrium. The shunt tube is about 1/8 in diameter and is made of a soft and pliable plastic (usually Silastic) that is well-tolerated by our body tissues. Shunt systems come in a variety of models but have similar functional components. Catheters (tubing) and a flow-control mechanism (one-way valve) are components common to all shunts. The parts of a shunt are named according to where they are placed in the body. The portion of the tube which is inserted into the ventricles is called the ventricular catheter. The peritoneal catheter is the portion of the tube which passes the CSF into the abdomen (peritoneal cavity). If the tube is place d into
