DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH ANALYSIS OF THE SHUNT BLOCKAGE IN VENTRICULO-PERITONEAL (VP) SHUNTS FOR HYDROCEPHALOUS WITH REFERENCE TO AGE, SEX AND INTERVAL OF REPLACEMENT OF VP SHUNT TO REVISION AT MAYO HOSPITAL, LAHORE

Background: In the established hydrocephalous a common modality of the treatment is ventriculoperitoneal shunt. Our research was aimed at the determination of the age and sex distribution, cause and site and post-operative year of shunt obstruction of the ventriculoperitoneal obstruction blocked VP shunts patients. Material & Methods: Research design was descriptive and it was carried out at Mayo Hospital, Lahore in the period of Jan, 2016 to Jan, 2017. We included every blocked VP shunt patient in our research study. Age and sex were the demographic; whereas, time from the VP shunt insertion was counted in years, post-operative shunt obstruction year and cause and site of the shunt obstruction were taken as the variables of the research study. To calculate the continuous data, we calculated the values of Mean & SD; whereas, percentage and frequency were also calculated for categorical data. Results: Research sample consisted of 104 patients, 56 males (53.85%) and 48 females (46.15%). The patient's median age factor was observed as four years (0.58 - 11.75 (IQR)). Below one-year age was involved repeatedly and it was observed in 39 patients (37.5%). Shunt obstruction occurrence was observed in 1st year of the post shunt insertion in 38 patients (36.54%). The occurrence of the Shunt obstruction was observed at the end of ventricular in 57 patients (54.80%); whereas, 47 patients (45.20%) had the blockage of distal catheter. The repeated cause of the blockage of the shunt was observed as lying in brain parenchyma and shunt tip crossing ventricle observed in 20 patients (19.23%). Conclusion: In the early years of the life the occurrence of the shunt obstruction in VP shunts is common and repeated. Its predominance is observed at the end of proximal. In the first insertion years its occurrence is observed.