[jac241]

They tunnel it in the subq until the abdomen then they make a tiny incision in the peritoneum and depending on the neurosurgeon may have general surgery take a look laparoscopically to make sure there’s CSF flow then use the grasper to try to toss it in the right pericolic gutter over the liver.

[sizzle]

How do they avoid bacteria from going up a shunt to the brain?

[serf]

I thought that was an interesting question as a layman. I found this, which I thought was an interesting read. [0]

[0]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/...

[jac241]

Yeah sterile technique has to be meticulous in shunt cases. There’s evidence that the number of people scrubbed into the case influences the shunt infection rate so students like me occasionally would not be permitted to scrub.

[jac241]

There’s generally no bacteria outside of the food tube though it certainly could happen the way you describe if there happened to be.