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Recurrent sampling and ventriculostomy-associated infections: a case-control study

  • Original Article - Infection
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

External ventricular drain (EVD) insertion is a common neurosurgical procedure with a significant risk of ventriculostomy-associated infections (VAIs), other morbidities and mortality. Several risk factors have been identified but their effect is unclear.

Objective

Our primary objective was to assess whether recurrent EVD sampling increased the risk of VAIs. The secondary objective was to explore the effect of sampling frequency, duration of EVD stay, presence of cerebrospinal fluid leak and concurrent infections.

Methods

Ours was a retrospective, single-centre, age-matched, case control study of 83 patients and 249 controls who underwent EVD insertion between 1 January 2010 – 31 December 2016. Patients with primary CNS infections, age under 1 year and death within 5 days of EVD insertion were excluded. Blinded abstractors collected all patient data through the electronic patient record system and regression analysis was used to compare the two groups.

Results

Sampling the EVD more than once did not increase the risk of infection (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.27–0.83, p = 0.01). Risk factors significantly associated with VAI included CSF leak (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.16–3.67, p = 0.01), concurrent infection (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.09–3.16, p = 0.02), and an EVD duration of >10 days (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.24–4.18, p = 0.01).

Conclusion

Our findings do not support the notion that increased sampling of EVDs is associated with a higher risk of VAI. CSF leaks, concurrent infection and long-term EVDs are also statistically significant risk factors for infection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurosurgical Department, King’s College Hospital, London, UK

    Daniel Roan Thompson, Sabina Patel, Christos Tolias & Konstantinos Barkas

  2. London, UK

    Daniel Roan Thompson

  3. Department of Critical Care Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London, UK

    Savvas Vlachos

  4. Medical School, King’s College London, London, UK

    Simeon Innocent

Authors
  1. Daniel Roan Thompson
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  2. Savvas Vlachos
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  3. Sabina Patel
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Correspondence to Daniel Roan Thompson.

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All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organisation or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licencing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Health Research Authority) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Presentation

SBNS Autumn Meeting–Liverpool, 20–22 September 2017, Podium presentation in “Paediatrics and cerebrospinal fluid” session

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Infection

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Thompson, D.R., Vlachos, S., Patel, S. et al. Recurrent sampling and ventriculostomy-associated infections: a case-control study. Acta Neurochir 160, 1089–1096 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-018-3508-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-018-3508-x

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