I've been researching several valves to begin discussing with my neurosurgeon and came across Aesculap's proGAV. It consists of a DP valve with an integrated secondary valve called ShuntAssistant. Does anyone have experience with this valve? It's suppose to give patients low opening pressure when lying down and adjusts to higher opening pressures when standing up.





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Hi jasn03w,

This gets beyond me somewhat. The requirements/issues for kids can be quite different from adults. Things often need to be redone with growth (may be what triggered this somewhat), and sometimes the options don't work as well when one is short (like kids are). We may switch to a VA shunt in the future to reduce the over draining/siphoning if this continues to be a problem as she grows. I know siphoning is not exactly the same as over draining, think we are dealing with both factors but I think knowing one's problems exactly helps the surgeon make the best equipment choice. The shunt assistant doesn't sound right my child although the placement for kids, behind the ear, isn't a big issue unless that is where kids get problem with devices embedding into the wrong tissue. Adults would get that shunt assistant into the chest if I'm not mistaken.

Does anyone know if ICP monitoring helps one know exactly the issues and choose the most appropriate system? Seems quite limited from what I do understand (which I freely admit isn't sufficient).

Hey Jasn,
Sorry, But I haven't heard of a twin valved shunt. Please let us know what your neuro has to say as I have a massive difficulty with positioning ie laying down and standing. I get dizzies to the point of collapsing and laying down I have a massive pounding headache. So much so that I hate going to bed due to pain.
As I say, let us know please

Merl1n

My daughter's shunt system is two valves in series. One medium pressure fixed valve (instead of an antisiphon device, used to be low pressure fixed valve) and one programmable.