Drain associated meningitis and ventriculitis remains a pivotal problem in neurointensive care: to understand their causes we need better surveillance data
- Correspondence to Ekkehard Matthias Kasper, Department of Neurosurgery, BIDMC, Harvard, Suite 3B, 110, Francis Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA; ekasper{at}bidmc.harvard.edu
- Received 7 April 2009
- Accepted 8 April 2009
The study by Scheithauer and colleagues1 (see page 1381) is relevant to a field that is affecting all neurointensivists and will help to create a more focused discussion on clinical and economic consequences. Why?
Several studies have shown that clinical presentation and laboratory findings do not correlate well in this setting. However, here the authors present a detailed analysis of CSF data collected prospectively during 3023 days of device usage in patients undergoing placement of either an external ventricular drain or lumbar drain for subarachnoid haemorrhage/intracerebral haemorrhage/traumata and other …
