Application of the Preventable Shunt Revision Rate to an Adult Population

The preventable shunt revision rate (PSRR) was recently introduced in pediatric hydrocephalus as a quality metric for shunt surgery. We evaluated the PSRR in an adult hydrocephalus population.

All ventricular shunt operations (January 1, 2013 to March 31, 2018) performed at a university-based teaching hospital were included. For any index surgery (de novo or revision) resulting in reoperation within 90 days, the index surgery details were collected, and a consensus decision was reached regarding whether the failure had been potentially avoidable. Preventable failure was defined as failure due to infection, malposition, disconnection, migration, or kinking. The 90-day shunt failure rate and PSRR were calculated. Bivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the individual effects of each independent variable on preventable shunt failure.

A total of 318 shunt operations had been performed in 245 patients. Most patients were women (62%), with a median age of 48.2 years (interquartile range, 31.2-63.2 years). Most had had ventriculoperitoneal shunts placed (86.5%), and just more than one half were new shunts (51.6%). A total of 53 cases (16.7%) in 42 patients experienced shunt failure within 90 days of the index operation. Of these, 27 failures (8.5% of the total cases; 51% of the failures) were considered potentially preventable. The most common reasons were infection (37%; n = 10) and malposition of the proximal and distal catheters (both 25.9%; n = 7). Age was the only statistically significant difference between the 2 groups, with the patients experiencing preventable shunt failure older than those without preventable shunt failure (51.4 vs. 37.1 years; P = 0.017).

The 90-day PSRR can be applied to an adult population and serve as a quality metric.