Wow. I just registered to ask questions about this.

My son (an adult) was found unresponsive in his apartment. No one had seen him for about 36 hours so we are not sure how long he was laying there. They do not know for certain what caused him to go down. His ventricles were large, but they were able to tap his shunt. Shunt series was ok.

He is currently in the ICU and on a ventilator. The only thing really notable, besides being unresponsive and on a vent, is he is super constipated. They have been trying to get him to go, but so far no luck. Tomorrow they will decrease his sedation which should help.

My kid has a long history of "intermittent" shunt failure and no one has ever really been able to track down what is wrong with him. He has done way better this last year since he had a shunt revision, but now he is worse than ever. I can't help but wonder if his constipation issues have been contributing to his problems all along. I never thought to check with him about that, but his girlfriend says he complains about it often and he's prone to being constipated.

I would love to hear of anyone else who has noticed any shunt problems associated with constipation. It seems that you (OP) are more thinking the shunt itself is causing it? Or do you have shunt issues when you are constipated?