Shunt

A shunt shifts one object, or volume of fluid (or gas or electrical current), from one place to another. In the context of neurosurgical practice we are considering cerebrospinal fluidThis clear, water-like fluid forms, for the most part, within the brain, more specifically inside the ventricles of the brain. Blood flows through structures inside the ventricles, called the choroid plexuses, and clear fluid is produced as a result, passing into the ventricle. This process is akin to blood flowing through the kidneys and urine being produced as a result. An important difference is that, unlike urine, the cerebrospinal fluid is not passed out of the body periodically. Instead, the fluid is re-absorbed back into the blood stream, mostly via the arachnoid granulations, into the cerebral venous sinuses. In the course of a 24-hour period, most healthy adults will produce about 500mls (or a pint) of cerebrospinal fluid, although at..., which is diverted from the ventriclesThe brain is not an entirely solid organ. There are chambers within the brain, referred to as ventricles or, more correctly, cerebral ventricles, to distinguish them from the ventricles of the heart. They represent the remnants of the central canal of the developing central nervous system, although they have taken on a much more complex shape than the original embryonic structure. There are four in total, one each side of the midline (referred to as the lateral ventricles) and two more, in the midline, referred to as the third and fourth ventricles, albeit often using Roman numerals. of the brain, or the spinal thecaThis Latin word means a sheath, or sleeve. It refers to the tube of dura that lines the spinal canal, retaining within it the spinal cerebrospinal fluid and containing the spinal cord and the nerves that issue from the cord., into another part of the body, most often the peritoneal cavitySee peritoneum..