Infections complicating the use of external ventriculostomy.

The use of external ventriculostomy at our institution has been retrospectively analyzed to determine the incidence of cerebrospinal fluid sepsis. Placement of 65 ventriculostomies over a 2-year period resulted in three cases of complicating meningitis and ventriculitis (4.5%). Duration of ventriculostomy placement did not seem related to the rate of infection but the method of placement, the prophylactic antibiotics used, and the monitoring and collecting system employed may be important.