Hello All

Glad to find that there is a group for this!

As a sign of the success of my surgery, I am 49 and have had a VP Shunt since I was 19. Id did the trick and drained my 3rd ventricle. I have various bits of damage to my nervous system, but I am very grateful to be here and to have gone to university after he operation when I had been intellectually written off before!

I have recently lost a lot of weight. I am a recovering alcoholic and since stopping 9 months ago my calorie intake is way down. As a result I need to have a tummy tuck. The surgeon is happy to do this, but want to get information about the routing of my shunt as he will need to disturb my upper abdomen as part of the procedure. I have been told that the shunt now does nothing (20 years ago) but they would prefer to leave it in situ because of the risk of infection removing it.

I have an appointment with my GP next week to talk about this. I don't want to spend lots of money on a private consultant contacting a specialist (the original was a pioneer in this field in Plymouth and is deceased I suspect). Can anyone point me t a consultant in the UK who would be able t give guidance on this? Excuse the spelling, but I recall that it was something like a Spitz - Holser shunt if that makes any sense?

Many thanks

Anthony