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Stroke Community
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Abdominal pain after VP shunt placement
by spaldo, Sep 24, 2008 10:32PM
Hi, I had a stoke (bleed) a little over a year ago. I was in the hospital for 5 weeks and ended up with a VP shunt. I have been having abdominal pain and sharp stabbing pains in my shoulder and back and abdomen ever since. I have had lot of testing done (CT Scans and Ultrasounds and Endoscopy) and everything has been normal. I am almost back to my pre stroke self except for some short term memory problems. I have discussed removal of the shunt with my neuro surgeon but am having no luck finding info out about this procedure. It seems that there is no way to find out if the shunt in functional and still draining. His suggestion is to clamp the shunt and wait to see if I get symptoms of increased intracranial pressure. They would keep me over night in the hospital and do a CT scan the next day. The only info I have found on the web is an article about a woman in California who had similar complaints and had her shunt removed. I found this article by typing in VP shunt /Abdominal pain. Please help me figure out if removal is even an option for me.
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on both occassions, CT scans and shunt series did not find a thing on me and my intercranial pressure and they foound no problems, the only way they found out was when i went into a coma like state!!
on the most recent revision, i had no problems no headaches or anything, but a routine opthalmology check revealed i had papilledema behind my eyes indicating pressure inside my head.
i underwent a simple surgery the next day and had an intercranial pressure monitor fixed into my head and was monitored for about 12 hours...although its suppose to be for 48!
this showed that the pressure in my head was at 95! (typically being 5-10 for an average person)
i underwent the shunt revision hours after this and now im fine =D
i suggest you ask for the possibility of an ICP bolt to be considered, as this was the only way my pressure was found out. in the surgery when they drilled into my head the fluid shot out across the theatre, this happened both times, so yer good luck and hope this comes in handy! =D x