Post-Operative Complications of Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt in Hydrocephalic Pediatric Patients-Nursing Care

• Main Authors: Efstratios Athanasakis, Despina Ermidou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Professor Despina Sapountzi-Krepia 2011-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Caring Sciences
• Subjects: hydrocephalus; children; complications; ventriculoperitoneal shunt; nursing care
• Online Access: http://internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/Vol4_Issue2_02_Athanasakis.pdf

Introduction: Hydrocephalus is the most common congenital abnormality of the central nervous system ininfants. Many cases of hydrocephalic children are described since ancient times. It is characterized by excessiveaccumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain. Its symptomatology during infanthood or earlychildhood is characterized by swelling of the head, protrusion of the forehead and brain atrophy. All thesesymptoms appear due to increased cerebrospinal fluid volume, increased intracranial pressure and dilatation ofthe ventricular walls.Aim: The aim of this paper is to describe the ventriculoperitoneal shunt complications in pediatrics patients andto point out the role of nursing stuff in the prevention of them.Methods: This include literature search on the database Medline and relevant with that issue internationalhydrocephalus organizations to identify studies regarding the complications of ventriculoperitoneal shunt and thenursing care for each complication.Results: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt is the treatment of hydrocephalic infants, rather than endoscopic thirdventriculostomy. Although the success of the ventriculoperitoneal shunt’s placement, the patients usually sufferfrom its afterwards complications. The complications involves postoperative shunt infection, shunt placementfailure, shunt obstruction – malfunction, abdominal complications – peritonitis, valve complications, slitventriclesyndrome and seizures. The role of the nursing stuff is vital, particularly in the postoperative weeks.Conclusion: A proper nursing assessment includes valid identification of complications and their prompttreatment. Also, nurses had to implement accurate nursing care, in order to prevent any complication. Finally,parental teaching from the nurses is crucial in the process of health outcomes for pediatric patient.