Cystoventricular shunting of intracranial arachnoid cysts.

Ten patients with intracranial arachnoid cysts were treated with direct shunting of the cyst to a lateral ventricle. The strategic goal of cystoventricular shunting is to establish physiologically normal intracranial pressure relationships, rather than cyst obliteration. Cystoventricular shunts were successful in treating single and multiple intracranial cysts in supratentorial and infratentorial locations and in patients with normal and enlarged lateral ventricles. Cystoventricular shunting is conceptually simple as well as effective and reliable.