Scrotal migration of a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt: report of a case.

A seven-month-old male infant developed a hydrocele four weeks after the surgical insertion of a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt. The shunt tip in the scrotum was palpable, visible on transillumination, and evident on abdominal X ray. The hydrocele persisted after the surgical repositioning of the shunt tip via a reopening of the abdominal wound. The shunt tip returned to the scrotum one week later, supporting the theory that a flow of cerebrospinal fluid into the patent processus vaginalis creates a trough effect, thus drawing the mobile shunt tip into the center of the trough. After an inguinal herniotomy and the reduction of the shunt tip, the hydrocele subsided.