Abstract Background Ventriculo-peritoneal shunt insertion is an age-long and yet persistent procedure employed for the management of hydrocephalus in children. Although, the concerns of foreign body implantation and possible complications, is gaining attention, many surgeons continue to use ventriculo-peritoneal shunt to surgically treat hydrocephalus. In low-resource settings with limited or unavailable modern techniques of managing hydrocephalus, can ventriculoperitoneal shunting be maintained in these centres? This five-year retrospective study was conducted in order to review the outcomes of children who had ventriculo-peritoneal shunting for hydrocephalus in a low-resource centre, to determine the safety of the procedure and its continuous use in low resource settings. Results The commonest aetiology of hydrocephalus was aqueductal stenosis, 43/99 (43.4%). There was a significant association between age of patients and aetiology of hydrocephalus with aqueductal stenosis and myelomeningocele being the most common aetiology in infancy and brain tumour in older children. The complication rate of ventriculo-peritoneal shunt procedure in this study was 21.2% (21/99). Shunt infection was the most common complication, 8/99 (8.1%). Conclusion This study showed that ventriculo-peritoneal shunting for paediatric hydrocephalus has acceptable complication profile. This may remain a veritable means of managing childhood hydrocephalus, especially in low- resource settings with limited or unavailable newer techniques of hydrocephalus management.
Adeleke et al. (Sun,) studied this question.