Background: Accurate ventricular catheter (VC) placement plays an important role in reducing the risk of ventriculoperitoneal shunt failure. Free-hand VC insertion is associated with a significant misplacement rate. Consequently, several expensive alternative methods that are unfortunately not available worldwide have been used. To overcome these limitations, we developed a simple surgical technique based on radio-anatomical landmarks aimed at reducing VC's misplacements.
Method: We reproduce the preoperative imaging on the patient's head using common anatomical landmarks. This allows defining stereotactic VC coordinates to be followed during the surgical procedure.
Conclusion: This simple and cost-effective method improves VC insertion accuracy.
Keywords: Hydrocephalus; Surgical technique; Ventriculoperitoneal shunt.