Frequency of infection associated with ventriculo-peritoneal shunt placement

Objective: to compare the frequency of infection in protocol-based and random ventriculo-peritoneal shunt placement in patients with hydrocephalus. methods: the prospective,observational study was conducted at civil hospital,karachi,from october 2014 to march 2015,and comprised patients having ventriculo-peritoneal shunt placement who were randomly categorised into group a that had protocol-based procedure and group b that had random shunt placement. all patients were followed up for six months to record final outcomes after surgery. a pre-tested questionnaire was used to document findings. spss 16 was used for data analysis. results: of the 210 patients,there were 105(50%) each in the two groups,overall having 117(55.7%) boys and 93(44.3%) girls. the frequency of infection was 8(7.6%) in group a and 19(18.1%) in group b (p<0.05). conclusion: with a meticulous surgical technique and modifications to the pre-,intra-,and postoperative care,it is possible to significantly reduce the incidence of shunt infection. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.