ABSTRACT
Headaches are one of the most common afflictions of mankind. Based on large series of patients, about 4% of the adults in the world suffer headaches every day, with a female-to-male ratio of 2.5:1 (1). A larger but inestimable number of individuals have occasional incapacitating headaches (2). Not surprisingly then, patients with shunts have headache disorders. The presence of the shunt in patients with headaches always leads to the assumption that something is wrong with the shunt. This assumption can lead to large numbers of expensive and possibly dangerous imaging studies, long waits in emergency rooms, and the expenditure of considerable money when the headaches are a chronic condition. There is always the possibility that patients could die or develop severe neurologic dysfunction from high intracranial pressure (ICP) at the time of shunt failure. Medically, therefore, it is reasonable to ascertain that their shunt is working. Doing so, however, is not always straightforward.
