Management of infectious complications of intraventricular reservoirs in cancer patients: low incidence and successful treatment without reservoir removal.

At the time of analysis, the first 30 patients with Ommaya reservoirs (OR) at the Children's Orthopedic Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, Washington had had 32 reservoirs for a mean duration of 28 months. In all, the reservoir chambers had been punctured for either diagnostic or therapeutic purposes a total of 1,287 times with a mean of 40 injections per reservoir and 1.4 injections per month. Six reservoir infections were diagnosed in five patients--a rate of one infection for every 153 reservoir-months. Four infections were attributed to reservoir use--a rate of one infection for every 322 reservoir entries, and less than one infection in 900 entries when a standard aseptic protocol for sampling and injection was applied. There was no correlation between infectious complications and the frequency with which reservoirs were injected, but there was evidence that some of the infections resulted from incomplete compliance with recommended technique for skin preparation and reservoir entry. Four infections were treated successfully with intravenous and intra-reservoir antibiotics without reservoir removal. Only one reservoir had to be removed because of persistent infection. Two other reservoirs were removed because of trauma and malfunction. Twenty-seven patients (90%) retained their original reservoir, up to 9.5 years after implantation. Intraventricular chemotherapy via an indwelling subcutaneous reservoir is a preferred method for delivery of intrathecal chemotherapy, with an acceptable infection risk relative to the benefits of patient comfort and therapeutic efficacy.