Biomaterial Database

Does the cerebrospinal fluid protein concentration increase the risk of shunt complications? 1996

H L Brydon, and R Hayward, and W Harkness, and R Bayston

Department of Neurosurgery, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK.

A prospective study was performed to determine whether the popular opinion that a high CSF protein concentration increases the risk of shunt complications is true. Ninety-five patients were enrolled into the study and they had 116 shunt operations over 15 months. It was considered that the CSF protein content might influence the development of complications that occurred within 2 months of surgery. Shunt complications occurred following 24.6% of operations within this period. This included 12 infections, 13 obstructions and three cases of overdrainage. The distribution of complications, compared to CSF protein content, was non-significant on a chi 2-test (p > 0.5). The total protein content of each of the complication groups was also analysed using the Mann-Whitney U-test and the differences were non-significant for the infection (0.1 > p > 0.05) and obstruction groups (0.5 > p > 0.1). It is concluded that an elevated CSF protein content does not increase the risk of shunt complications, and that there is no reason why shunting should be delayed in patients with a high CSF protein content.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D007231	Infant, Newborn	An infant during the first 28 days after birth.	Neonate,Newborns,Infants, Newborn,Neonates,Newborn,Newborn Infant,Newborn Infants
D008297	Male		Males
D011183	Postoperative Complications	Pathologic processes that affect patients after a surgical procedure. They may or may not be related to the disease for which the surgery was done, and they may or may not be direct results of the surgery.	Complication, Postoperative,Complications, Postoperative,Postoperative Complication
D012086	Reoperation	A repeat operation for the same condition in the same patient due to disease progression or recurrence, or as followup to failed previous surgery.	Revision, Joint,Revision, Surgical,Surgery, Repeat,Surgical Revision,Repeat Surgery,Revision Surgery,Joint Revision,Revision Surgeries,Surgery, Revision
D002556	Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteins	Proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid, normally albumin and globulin present in the ratio of 8 to 1. Increases in protein levels are of diagnostic value in neurological diseases. (Brain and Bannister's Clinical Neurology, 7th ed, p221)	Proteins, Cerebrospinal Fluid,Fluid Proteins, Cerebrospinal
D002557	Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunts	Tubes inserted to create communication between a cerebral ventricle and the internal jugular vein. Their emplacement permits draining of cerebrospinal fluid for relief of hydrocephalus or other condition leading to fluid accumulation in the ventricles.	Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunt,Shunt, Cerebrospinal Fluid,Shunts, Cerebrospinal Fluid
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D004867	Equipment Design	Methods and patterns of fabricating machines and related hardware.	Design, Equipment,Device Design,Medical Device Design,Design, Medical Device,Designs, Medical Device,Device Design, Medical,Device Designs, Medical,Medical Device Designs,Design, Device,Designs, Device,Designs, Equipment,Device Designs,Equipment Designs