What are the relationships between operating pressure of the valve and intracranial pressure?
The operating pressure does not correspond to intracranial pressure, but is only the resistance of the valve to CSF flow. Catheters also add resistance to the CSF flow. Drainage occurs as a result of positive pressures (intraventricular pressure or ICP, weight of the height of the CSF column) and negative pressures (cerebral resistance to flow / poor compliance, valve operating pressure, catheters length and diameter, intra-abdominal pressure*). Thus there is no evidence that the ICP should have the same value as the operating pressure of the valve.
