[The slit ventricle syndrome--causes, differential diagnosis and therapeutic problems]

Shunt dependent patients with clinical signs of shunt malfunction and slit ventricles on computerized tomography could suffer either from low pressure or from a slit-ventricle-syndrome with increased pressure. In such cases we recommend a lumbal punction with pressure monitoring to make the diagnosis certain. In case of increased pressure we firstly inject 0.9% NaCl into the proximal part of the ventricular catheter to remove it's obturation. Sometimes shunt revision can so be avoided in the slit-ventricle-syndrome.