An adjustable gravitational valve for initial VP-shunt treatment in hydrocephalic preterm neonates and infants below 1 year of age.

The combination of a fixed DP valve with an adjustable gravitational unit utilized as first-line shunt regimen was feasible and safe in a highly vulnerable subgroup of hydrocephalic infants. The adjustment option for the gravitational unit showed frequent and increasing implication over time and was beneficial even during the very early developmental stage of limited autonomous mobility. To our knowledge this is the first ever reported long-term investigation of an age-consistent pediatric patient collective primary shunted with an adjustable gravitational valve system.