Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a patient with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt

With the advent of ventriculo-peritoneal shunting and improved medical therapies, patients with hydrocephalus are living Ionger and presenting with unrelated medical problems. It can be disconcerting to discover that the patient who needs a routine laparoscopic procedure also has a ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt. Although the literature is limited there is a small body of evidence indicating that it is safe to perform laparoscopic surgery on these patients with routine anesthetic monitoring. The authors report the case of a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a patient with a VP shunt.