Severance of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter implanted between the cerebral ventricle and peritoneal cavity, resulting in protrusion from the anus.
One rare complication of a ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt is perforation of the gastrointestinal tract by the catheter. We report a case in which the catheter severed spontaneously inside the peritoneal cavity, creating a communication between the intestinal tract and the peritoneal cavity. The patient was a 41-year-old man who presented with a VP shunt catheter protruding from the anus. Computed tomography showed that the VP shunt catheter, which had been put in place 25 years earlier, had severed spontaneously. The distal end had then perforated and entered the intestinal tract. The patient was hospitalized and emergency surgery was performed to repair the intestinal tract perforation caused by the end of the VP shunt catheter. Laparotomy revealed that the catheter had perforated the sigmoid colon. The VP shunt catheter was removed, and the perforation in the intestinal tract was closed by suturing. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 20.
Department of Surgery, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Tamuro
T
Hayama
Soichiro
S
Ishihara
Norihito
N
Yamazaki
Takuya
T
Akahane
Ryu
R
Shimada
Atsushi
A
Horiuchi
Hajime
H
Shibuya
Hideki
H
Yamada
Keijiro
K
Nozawa
Keiji
K
Matsuda
Toshiaki
T
Watanabe
D000328:Adult; D001003:Anal Canal; D020878:Device Removal; D004868:Equipment Failure; D006801:Humans; D007416:Intestinal Perforation / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D017287:Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt / Q000009:adverse effects*