REDUCTION OF INFECTIONS AFTER USING SILVER-BEARING EXTERNAL VENTRICULAR CATHETERS: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

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REDUCTION OF INFECTIONS AFTER USING
SILVER-BEARING EXTERNAL VENTRICULAR CATHETERS A
RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

• Hadjigeorgiou GF, Zisakis A, Markogiannakis G,
  Petrosyan T, Psilovassilopoulos G, Hadjigeorgiou
  FG, Varsos V
• Department of Neurosurgery, Red Cross Hospital
• Athens, Greece
• Keywords infections, silver-bearing, catheters

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Introduction

• The insertion of an external ventricular drainage
  (EVD) for the treatment of acute hydrocephalus is
  one of the most commonly performed procedures in
  neurosurgery.
• EVD-related infections may lead to further
  serious complications such as ventriculitis,
  meningitis and brain abscess

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Aim

• The aim of this article is to compare the
  efficacy of silver-bearing EVD catheters for
  reducing the incidence of infection with standard
  nonimpregnated EVD catheters in neurosurgical
  patients.

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Material and Methods

• Between January 2008 and December 2011
• 58 patients with acute hydrocephalus of various
  reasons were respectively reviewed.
• Exclusion criteria were
• removal of EVD lt24 hours,
• suspected infection before insertion of the
  catheter and
• former EVD insertion within the previous 30 days.

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Material and Methods

• The study group with silver-bearing EVDs
  consisted of 26 patients and
• The control group with standard EVD catheters
  consisted of 32 patients.
• After removal of the catheters, they were also
  assessed microbiologically for colonization of
  the catheters tip.

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Results

• Positive CSF culture or colonization of the
  catheter tip was found in
• 6 cases with silver-bearing EVDs (23,7),
• 10 cases in the control group (31,3).

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Discussion

• Although the size of the sample is limited, this
  analysis indicates that silver-bearing EVD
  catheters are accompanied with smaller rates of
  infection in neurosurgical patients, when
  compared with standard EVDs