Background: In hydrocephalus shunt surgery, a peritoneal catheter is traditionally inserted with laparotomy incision. The abdominal incision length will not be shorter than 3 cm in most cases. A longer incision has to be made in obese patients. The lateral position in lumboperitoneal shunt (LPS) surgery also increases the difficulty of laparotomy. This report introduces a simple technique of pneumoperitoneal puncture for peritoneal catheter placement in LPS surgery.
Methods: Twenty-eight communicating hydrocephalus cases underwent pneumoperitoneal puncture in an LPS operation. Abdominal incision length, time for peritoneal catheter placement, and postoperative complications were recorded.
Results: The length of the abdominal incision was 1 cm, and the average time for peritoneal catheter placement was 3.5 minutes. No patient suffered from infection and obstruction. Two cases of subdural hematoma because of cerebrospinal fluid overdrainage occurred.
Conclusions: The pneumoperitoneal puncture technique has proven, in our experience, to be a minimally invasive, simple, and reliable method in a peritoneal catheter placement procedure. This technique, which needs to be assessed further by larger case series, may be considered a new method of choice for peritoneal catheter placement in LPS surgery.
Keywords: Hydrocephalus; Lumboperitoneal shunt; Pneumoperitoneum; Puncture.
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