Bowel perforation of ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter: endoscopically treated two cases

Many techniques were used for the treatment of hydrocephalus, and ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery is a widely used procedure. Ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery has been associated with several complications like obstruction of the tube, infection, cerebrospinal fluid loculation, intestinal obstruction, migration of the shunt, and perforation of the intestinal organs. Perforation of the bowel owing to protrusion of ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter from the anus is an extremely rare complication. Mini or exploratory laparotomy and revision of peritoneal part of shunt and repair of bowel perforation, or pulling out the ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter and using external ventricular drainage and antibiotics, or colonoscopic removal of ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter and repair of the bowel can be performed. Retrograde contamination of cerebrospinal fluid and meningitis is a very important part of the treatment in these cases. We aimed to present two cases with bowel perforation who treated with endoscopically.

We report the cases of 2 patients with transanal protrusion of VPS catheter and the management via endoscopic therapeutic options.

Successful treatment of the patients was achieved by endoscopic removal of the catheter and endoscopic repair of the bowel perforation.

If peritonitis, bowel obstruction, or abscess does not occur, endoscopic removal of shunt and bowel repairing with endoclips may be enough.