Shunts do work for a condition where fluid builds up in the brain, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Normal pressure hydrocephalus, where fluid called CSF builds up in the brain, is fairly common with aging, and has been treated with something called a shunt that diverts the excess fluid to the abdomen. Now a study by Mark Luciano, a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues shows the treatment is effective.

Luciano: Surgical controls with the placebo are pretty hard. You can't fake surgery. A valve came out, normal valve that controls the CSF flow but it has an off switch almost no flow. You could set this and turn it on and off, it's a way to turn on and off the system in a blind fashion. A great non invasive way to do the studies. Everybody gets a good shunt because the shunts we usually use. Half of them get it set at an off position in the first three months then at the end of that period of time everybody gets switched to an active shunting. We actually followed these patients beyond three months for a full year which we're still doing.  :33 

Luciano says controversy over whether shunt placement actually works can now be settled with the results of this study. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.