Skip to main content
  • Poster presentation without discussion
  • Open access
  • Published:

Intelligent design? Status and perspectives of hydrocephalus valves

Background

After an explosive development of the first simple valves in the fifties the technology stagnated over 30 years and consisted preferably of cloning. Antisiphon valves were inaugurated in 1973, gravitational 75, adjustable valves in 84 (open adjustable precursors 50/69!) and negative feed-back regulated Orbis-Sigma 87, but played no role before the nineties. In contrast to sophisticated technologies, theoretical advantages and threefold prices, most studies with adjustable, Orbis- and antisiphon-valves showed similar results as old designs. Especially the prospective studies demonstrated no superiority of new concepts. Is the impression of a minor role of valves correct?

Materials and methods

We tested 750 valves (346 new) in vitro: 89 designs, 25 companies, 123 adjustable, 131 gravitational, 54 antisiphon, 32 feed-back regulated. The explanted specimen had short tests, but careful inspections; the new passed an ISO-conform test battery with max.35 subtests. 234 had long-term-tests, of them 111 over 300–500 days.

Results

56 years after Nulsen the problems of inaccuracy, drift, instable valve bodies and especially over drainage in upright are not sufficiently solved in most designs. The weak point of all antisiphon-concepts (& Delta/Strata) is the excessive susceptibility to external pressures, of Orbis-Sigma the tiny internal dimensions. Adjustable valves alone over drain. Their magnetic susceptibility is a source of permanent troubles, which increases in the age of omnipresent electric fields and 3-T-MRIs. Safe was Sophysa Polaris and Miethke ProGAV only. With respect to over drainage gravitational valves were superior. However, they need adjustability for adaptation on growth or abdominal counter pressure; one adjustable is patented.

Conclusion

The developmental potential of mechanical designs is not exhausted. The current state-of-the-art may be the crossover of gravitational and adjustable valves with a "brake".

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A Aschoff.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Aschoff, A., Biedermann, D., Biedermann, N. et al. Intelligent design? Status and perspectives of hydrocephalus valves. Fluids Barriers CNS 3 (Suppl 1), S58 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-8454-3-S1-S58

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-8454-3-S1-S58

Keywords