Objectives:
Hydrocephalus is a very common childhood condition usually requiring placement of (CSF) shunt. Infection is considered one of the most significant complications that lead to prolonged hospital stay and more cost.
Aim of the work:
Is to correlate VP shunt infection in relation to preoperative, operative and postoperative predictors and also to identify measures to decrease shunt infection.
Methods:
We performed a prospective study of fifty children below than two years of age evaluated in a single neurosurgery department from 2017 to 2019. All included children underwent CSF shunt insertion . A shunt infection was defined by growth of bacteria in the CSF of a child who underwent shunt removal within 7 days of presentation. All cases of shunt infection were correlated to preoperative predictors such as age, operative predictors including operative time and postoperative predictors such as fever and CSF leak.
Results:
In our study we have 4 cases presented with shunt infection in the follow up period representing 8% of all cases. Shunt infection happened mainly in the first six month of age. fever was the leading sign in case of shunt infection and it represented in 75 % of cases of shunt infection.
Conclusions:
The lower the age of the child, the more the incidence of shunt infection. Fever, irritability and clinical signs such as CSF leak, erythema and fluid tracking over the shunt were strong predictors for shunt infection.
Keywords: vp shunt , predictors, infection, paediatric, CSF