Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Mar 19;4(Suppl 1):S38-50.
doi: 10.4103/2152-7806.109197. Print 2013.

New and improved ways to treat hydrocephalus: Pursuit of a smart shunt

Barry R Lutz  1 , Pranav Venkataraman, Samuel R Browd
Affiliations

New and improved ways to treat hydrocephalus: Pursuit of a smart shunt

Barry R Lutz et al. Surg Neurol Int. .

Abstract

The most common treatment for hydrocephalus is placement of a cerebrospinal fluid shunt to supplement or replace lost drainage capacity. Shunts are life-saving devices but are notorious for high failure rates, difficulty of diagnosing failure, and limited control options. Shunt designs have changed little since their introduction in 1950s, and the few changes introduced have had little to no impact on these long-standing problems. For decades, the community has envisioned a "smart shunt" that could provide advanced control, diagnostics, and communication based on implanted sensors, feedback control, and telemetry. The most emphasized contribution of smart shunts is the potential for advanced control algorithms, such as weaning from shunt dependency and personalized control. With sensor-based control comes the opportunity to provide data to the physician on patient condition and shunt function, perhaps even by a smart phone. An often ignored but highly valuable contribution would be designs that correct the high failure rates of existing shunts. Despite the long history and increasing development activity in the past decade, patients are yet to see a commercialized smart shunt. Most smart shunt development focuses on concepts or on isolated technical features, but successful smart shunt designs will be a balance between technical feasibility, economic viability, and acceptable regulatory risk. Here, we present the status of this effort and a framework for understanding the challenges and opportunities that will guide introduction of smart shunts into patient care.

Keywords: Hydrocephalus; shunt; smart shunt; technology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework for a smart shunt. Nearly all smart shunt concepts aim to control CSF drainage based on measurements from implanted sensors (e.g., ICP, CSF flowrate, patient orientation) using a pump or a valve. All smart shunts require a power source (battery with possibility of periodic recharging), and they include implanted electronics (with software). Nearly all smart shunt concepts aim to provide data and allow adjustment or reprogramming of the device
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alkharabsheh AR, Momani L, Al-Zubi N, Al-Nuaimy W. Developments in E-systems Engineering (DESE) 2010. A Multi-Agent Approach for Self-Diagnosis of a Hydrocephalus Shunting System; pp. 39–43.
    1. Alkharabsheh AR, Momani L, Al-Zu’bi N, Al-Nuaimy W. An expert system for hydrocephalus patient feedback. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2010;2010:1166–9. - PubMed
    1. Al-Zubi N, Al-kharabsheh A, Momani L, Al-Nuaimy W. Intelligent shunt agent for gradual shunt removal. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2010;2010:430–3. - PubMed
    1. Al-Zubi N, Al-Nuaimy W, Al-Hadidi M. Personalised mechatronic valve time-schedule optimiser for hydrocephalus shunt. In: Biomedical Engineering (MECBME), 2011 1st Middle East Conference on. 2011. :359–62.
    1. Al-Zubi N, Momani L, Al-kharabsheh A, Al-Nuaimy W. Treatment and Management Methodology of Hydrocephalus: Application of Electronic Shunt Multiagent System (eShunt). In: Developments in eSystems Engineering (DESE), Second International Conference on. 2009. :147–50.