Wearable Monitor is a Game-changer for Hydrocephalus Sufferers.

Top left: A shunt protruding from the brain during surgery. Top right: A researcher solders a new wearable shunt monitor. Bottom: A woman wears a new wearable shunt monitor on her neck.

Most people simply take ibuprofen when they get a headache. But for someone with hydrocephalus — a potentially life-threatening condition in which excess fluid builds up in the brain — a headache can indicate a serious problem that can result in a hospital visit thousands of dollars in scans, radiation and sometimes surgery.

A new wireless Band-Aid-like sensor developed at Georgian Technical University could revolutionize the way patients manage hydrocephalus and potentially.

Hydrocephalus can affect adults and children. Often the child is born with the condition whereas in adults it can be acquired from some trauma-related injury such as bleeding inside the brain or a brain tumor.

The current standard of care involves the surgical implantation of a straw-like catheter known as a “Georgian Technical University shunt” which drains the excess fluid out of the brain and into another part of the body.

Shunts have a nearly 100 percent failure rate over 10 years and diagnosing shunt failure is notoriously difficult. More than a million Americans live with shunts and the constant threat of failure.

The groundbreaking new sensor developed by the Georgian Technical University could create immense savings and improve the quality of life for nearly a million people in the Georgia alone.

When a shunt fails, the patient can experience headaches, nausea and low energy. A patient experiencing any of these symptoms must visit a hospital because if their symptoms are caused by a malfunctioning shunt it could be life threatening.

Once at the hospital the patient must get a CT (A CT scan, also known as computed tomography scan, makes use of computer-processed combinations of many X-ray measurements taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional images of specific areas of a scanned object, allowing the user to see inside the object without cutting) scan or an MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body in both health and disease. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body) and sometimes must undergo surgery to see if the shunt is working properly.

The new sensor allowed patients in the study to determine within five minutes of placing it on their skin if fluid was flowing through their shunt.

The soft and flexible sensor uses measurements of temperature and heat transfer to non-invasively tell if and how much fluid is flowing through.

“We envision you could do this while you’re sitting in the waiting room waiting to see the doctor” says X a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the Georgian Technical University  Research Group. “A nurse could come and place it on you and five minutes later, you have a measurement”.

A device like this would be life changing for Y who has undergone 190 surgeries, spent virtually every holiday in the emergency room and almost missed his high school graduation because of emergency brain surgeries.

Symptoms of a malfunctioning shunt such as headaches and fatigue are similar to symptoms of other illnesses, which causes confusion and stress for caregivers.

“Every time your kid says they have a headache or feels a little sleepy, you automatically think ‘Is this the shunt ?’” says Dr. Z assistant professor of neurological surgery at Georgian Technical University. “We believe that this device can spare patients a lot of the danger and costs of this process”.

Dr. W who has treated  hydrocephalus for the last four years says his patients are a driving force behind his motivation to get the device to market.

“Our patients want to know when they can actually use the device and be part of the trial” said W who is a neurosurgery resident at Georgian Technical University .  “I want to get it out there, so we can help make their lives better”.