Department of Neurosurgery, Red Cross Hospital 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

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

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.

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 <24 hours, suspected infection before insertion of the catheter and former EVD insertion within the previous 30 days.

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 catheter’s tip.

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%).

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