Death in consequence of late failure of endoscopic third ventriculostomy.
BACKGROUND
Late failure of originally successful endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) is considerably less common than failure of ventriculo-peritoneal (V-P) shunt in treatment of hydrocephalus. Death in consequence of late ETV failure is a very rare complication, so far having been mentioned in literature in 13 patients only.


METHODS
We present the case of an 11-year-old girl who died in consequence of ETV failure 26 months after the endoscopic procedure. Histopathology proved the closure of stoma by gliotic tissue.


CONCLUSIONS
We can assume that reduced compliance of the ventricular wall in long-term V-P shunt, aqueductal stenosis as a cause of hydrocephalus as well as rapid onset of clinical symptoms prior to ETV might be the cause of acute onset of intracranial hypertension after late ETV failure. Potential prevention of sudden death seems to be the implantation of subcutaneous reservoir during the endoscopic procedure, which allows simple and rapid reduction of intraventricular pressure.
Lipina
Radim
R
Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Ostrava, 17. listopadu 1790, Ostrava-Poruba 708 52, Czech Republic. rlipina@volny.cz
Palecek
Tomas
T
Reguli
Stefan
S
Kovarova
Magdalena
M
D002535:Cerebral Aqueduct / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D044583:Neuroendoscopy; D020542:Third Ventricle / Q000601:surgery*; D013997:Time Factors; D017211:Treatment Failure; D014696:Ventriculostomy / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods