Shunt failure in adult hydrocephalus: flow-controlled shunt versus differential pressure shunts--a cooperative study in 289 patients.

Background: In order to assess the efficiency of flow-controlled shunts in reducing shunt failure in the treatment of adult hydrocephalus (with a special focus on overdrainage complications), a series of 289 patients was analyzed through a retrospective and comparative study performed in three neurosurgical departments.

Methods: A group of 142 adult patients suffering from hydrocephalus were operated on using a conventional differential pressure (DP) shunt and compared with a group of 147 adult patients operated on using flow-controlled (FC) system (Orbis-Sigma, Cordis). Only the first complication, which required a surgical revision within the first 2 years after shunt implantation, was taken into account for each patient and analyzed using life-table methods.

[Surgery for lumbar disk hernia after chemonucleolysis. Results and analysis. Apropos of 100 cases].

We studied the clinical results of 100 patients operated after failure of chemonucleolytic treatment with chemopapain for lumbosciatica caused by disk herniation. Secondary surgical procedures were performed because of persistence of sciatic pain and disk herniation visible on CT scan. Post-operative follow-up was done at a minimum of one year.

[Treatment of chronic hydrocephalus in adults by flow-regulated shunt. Apropos of a series of 46 patients].

46 patients, 24 males and 22 females (mean age: 68.3 years), with chronic hydrocephalus were operated on by a variable-resistance, flow-regulated shunt. The selecting criteria before surgery were essentially clinical (association of gait disturbances, dementia and urinary incontinence, positive lumbar puncture withdrawal test) in consideration with the retrospective and cooperative study of this series.

[Surgical problems arising from ethmoid adenocarcinomas].

Adenocarcinomas are the most frequent ethmoid tumors. The only curative treatment at present is surgery. Potential extensions of these tumors require a wide exeresis.