Nephritis associated with an infected peritoneovenous LeVeen shunt

A patient with chronic active hepatitis and medically unmanageable ascites developed staphylococcal bacteremia after insertion of a peritoneovenous LeVeen shunt. The patient developed glomerulonephritis, manifested by moderate proteinuria, microscopic hematuria with red cell casts, azotemia, and evidence of complement activation. The protracted infection, urinary, and renal abnormalities subsided after removal of the LeVeen shunt and a 3-week course of antibiotics. The clinical course of this patient is typical of the immune-complex mediated glomerulonephritis that has been previously well described in hydrocephalic patients with chronically infected ventriculoatrial shunts.