Complications related to pre-craniotomy shunts in posterior fossa tumours

Among 344 patients with posterior fossa tumours treated from 1979 to 1986 a ventriculoperitoneal, or, less commonly, a ventriculatrial shunt was inserted in 164 cases pre-operatively. Haematoma following the insertion of a shunt was found to be an important cause of deterioration. While the occurrence of cerebrospinal fluid leak (p less than 0.3) and pseudomeningocele (p less than 0.01) was more frequent in the non-shunted cases, seizures (p less than 0.01) were found to occur more frequently in the shunted cases.