Ventriculoperitoneal shunt complications: a three-year retrospective study in a Kenyan national teaching and referral hospital.

Background/aims: Ventriculoperitoneal shunt complications have scarcely been reported in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed at determining the frequency of these complications and their associated risk factors in a Kenyan National Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Methods: This cross-sectional study retrospectively covered 117 patients admitted to the Kenyatta National Hospital neurosurgical ward between January 2005 and December 2007 with ventriculoperitoneal shunt complications.

Ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery and shunt infections in children with non-tumour hydrocephalus at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi.

Objective: To study infections complicating ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt surgery in children with non-tumour hydrocephalus at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi.

Design: A retrospective survey.

Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi between January 1982 and December 1991.

Spinal cord compression due to tumours at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi.

Objective: To determine the frequency of different types of tumours associated with cord compression, their mode of presentation and treatment outcome.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), a teaching and referral hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, from January 1985 to December 1994.

Brain tumours at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi.

Objective: To study the frequency, mode of presentation and outcome following treatment of gliomas in patients treated at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Design: A retrospective study.

Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, between January 1984 and December 1993.