Shunt assistant valve: bench test investigations and clinical performance.

Background: We tested the flow characteristics of a new siphon-reducing device, the Shunt Assistant Valve trade mark (SAV) combined with a Codman-Hakim trade mark (CH) programmable valve and studied 4 clinical cases. We discussed the efficacy of the SAV at preventing low pressure syndrome secondary to overdrainage.

Materials And Methods: In the horizontal position the closing pressure (CP) of the SAV was 0.