Peripheral facial palsy following ventriculoperitoneal shunt. The lesson we have learned

We report a very rare case of a male patient with normal pressure hydrocephalus submitted to ventriculoperitoneal shunt. During tunnelling of the shunt stylet, a peripheral facial palsy due to injury to the extra cranial segment of the facial nerve occurred. To the best of our knowledge this is the second case described in Literature. The patient and the surgeon should be aware of this very rare but possible complication in shunt surgery being careful to the course of the facial nerve in the mastoid region.
Source: Interdisciplinary Neurosurgery - Category: Neurosurgery Source Type: research