Ventriculoperitoneal shunt catheter protrusion through the anus: case report of an uncommon complication and literature review

Bowel perforation and anal ventriculoperitoneal shunt migration: A systematic review

“…In this review, bowel and anal migration were found to be more frequent in males, in agreement with findings from other studies. 3 Although shunt migration can occur in individuals of all ages, anal migration is rarely observed in the adult population, and most cases are reported in pediatric populations, possibly because of the fragility of the bowel in children, 3 , 5 as well as the higher rate of intestinal motility in children than adults. Additionally, the delay in intestinal motility is greater in the adult colon than the child colon, 6 thus possibly explaining why the site of perforation in this review was frequently the colon.…”

“…Finally, we agree with the opinion of Volkan Etus that anal protrusion is an opportunity for early diagnosis of bowel perforation and therefore early management. 5 Sometimes in routine practice, physicians are faced with the choice of leaving an old catheter that is difficult to retrieve. However, with the increasing number of migration cases, surgeons must importantly make additional efforts to remove these foreign bodies.…”

A unique strategy for large-bowel perforation with ventriculoperitoneal shunt: Conversion to ventriculoatrial shunt: A case report

“…In contrast, spontaneous bowel perforation complicated by a VP shunt is rare, but potentially fatal, and can occur any time after shunting in approximately 0.01%–0.07% of patients [4,5]. This infection is likely caused by VP shunts’ sharp ends, local inflammatory reactions or fibrosis around the distal catheter resulting in pressure on the bowel area, shunt-related chronic irritation, previous adhesions or infections, or silicone allergy due to foreign body [4,6]. Mortality rate after perforation was relatively high (15%–18%) and further increased when infection occurred in 22% of patients with CNS infection and 33% with intra-abdominal infection [[7], [8], [9]].…”

Bowel perforation by lumbar-peritoneal (LP) shunt: A rare complication of neurosurgery

“…The causes of this uncommon complication vary and have been suspected to be the sharp end of the VP/LP shunt, the formation of a local inflammatory reaction or fibrosis around the distal catheter resulting in pressure on an area of the bowel, chronic irritation by the shunt, previous adhesions or infections and finally silicone allergy as a foreign body-like reaction [ 7 , 11 ].…”