Prevention of Ventriculitis and CSF Infection
Surgical insertion of a catheter to reduce and control intracranial pressure is the standard treatment. However, Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) catheters are associated with risks including the serious complication of bacterial contamination.(Wu Y et al 2007)
Despite multiple preventive strategies for reducing infection, up to 15% of patients with shunt catheters and up to 27% of patients with EVDs develop an infection. (Tunkel AR 2010 ;Zabramski JM 2003)
These patients face twice the risk of mortality and three times the number of shunt-related operations. (Blount JP 1996 ;Schoenbaum SC 1975)
The average cost of a CSF catheter-related infection is estimated to be approximately $50,000. (Farber SH, 2010)
Even when infections are successfully treated, long-term morbidities including seizures, cognitive deficits, and psychomotor retardation can develop. (Vinchon M 2007)
The use of antimicrobial impregnated shunt and EVD catheters may help minimize infection rates. The BACTISEAL Antimicrobial Impregnated Catheter (AIC) silicone material is impregnated with the antibiotics rifampicin and clindamycin. These antibiotics release slowly and uniformly from the exterior and interior lumen surfaces of the catheter,reducing gram positive bacterial colonization for up to 50 days. (Bayston, 1997)
The aim of the webinar is to share a description of the disease and how to prevent it. Our renowned faculty will discuss their views and share their experience.
Presented by
Professor Roger Bayston,
MMedSciPhD FRCPath. Professor
Roger Bayston qualified and trained in Sheffield UK, and after working in paediatric surgery, paediatrics and microbiology moved to London to become Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at the Institute of Child Health / Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital and Honorary Microbiologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square. He moved to Nottingham in 1993 and is now Professor of Surgical Infection, Head of Biomaterials - Related Infection Group and Divisional Postgraduate Research Lead at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine. He is Immediate Past President of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida, and Chair of the Medical Advisory Council of Shine, the hydrocephalus charity. He has chaired national working groups on infection in neurosurgery and vascular surgery and served as Hon Secretary of the British Orthopaedic Research Society. He is currently a member of the Healthcare Infection Society national working group on infection in external ventricular drainage. He has had a longstanding interest in neurosurgical infection, publishing his first paper on shunt infection in 1972. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters and is a frequent invited speaker. He is inventor of the Bactiseal process.
Miss Silvia Gatscher,
Department of Neurosurgery
Silvia Gatscher qualified from medical school in Vienna with a MD and trained as a neurosurgeon in Austria, Germany and the UK. Following certification, she initially worked as a Locum Consultant at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield and then became a Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. She moved to Oxford in 2011, where she is one of 4 paediatric neurosurgeons at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
Miss Gatscher is a member of national and international paediatric neurosurgical societies, has published papers in international journals and is a frequent speaker at national and international meetings. She has a long standing interest in shunt infection and has led a 5year audit at Great Ormond Street Hospital looking at the causes and possible preventive measures of infection in shunt surgery.
