A. Reinprecht et al., THE MEDOS HAKIM PROGRAMMABLE VALVE IN THE TREATMENT OF PEDIATRIC HYDROCEPHALUS, Child's nervous system, 13(11-12), 1997, pp. 588-593
The programmable Medos Hakim valve offers the possibility of adjusting
the valve's operating pressure noninvasively. We retrospectively anal
yzed a series of 78 children who underwent a shunting procedure using
this programmable valve within the last 4 years: 46 children underwent
a primary shunt placement and 32 children underwent a shunt revision
with a different valve replaced by the Medos programmable valve. There
were 23 complications, 9 infections, 13 mechanical complications and
1 subileus in all children. Treatment was successful with no need for
further shunt revision in 29 of the children with primary shunt placem
ents and 27 of the children with shunt revisions. In 10 cases of overd
rainage this was adequately corrected by readjustment of the valve ope
rating pressure alone. As there are no criteria for prediction of the
valve operating pressure needed for any individual patient we consider
this valve to be beneficial in various forms of shunt-dependent pedia
tric hydrocephalus.