• Harnarayan Singh, Rana Patir, Sandeep Vaishya, Rahul Miglani, and Amandeep Kaur.
• Department of Neurosurgery, W Pratiksha hospital, Golf Course Extension Road, Sector 56, Sushant Lok 2, Gurugram, Haryana, India.
• Neurol India. 2020 Mar 1; 68 (2): 458-461.

AbstractBackground And AimsExternal ventricular drainage (EVD) is one of the commonest procedures in neurosurgical practice to manage acute hydrocephalus. We evaluated the infectious and non-infectious complications associated with a modified technique for EVD using an Ommaya reservoir.MethodsOmmaya reservoir was placed in all patients who required EVD placement for CSF drainage. CSF drainage was achieved using a needle placed in a non-coring fashion percutaneously into the Ommaya reservoir to achieve CSF drainage externally. CSF was monitored for signs of infection regularly using CSF biochemistry and cultures. CSF infection was defined by a positive culture or a secondary infection in patients with already infected CSF.Results59 patients required continuous CSF drainage during the study period from January 2014 to June 2017. 46 (77.96%) patients had non-infected CSF at time of starting drainage and 13 (22.03%) patients required external CSF drainage for primarily infected CSF. The study period had a total of 793 CSF drainage days (Range 3-64 days) with an average of 13.4 days per patient. The cumulative rate of new infection was 5.08%. No ventricular catheter blockage or dislodgement was seen in any of the patients.ConclusionsExternal ventricular drainage through an Ommaya chamber is a safe and effective method and can be used to reduce the catheter related complications like infection, catheter blockage and dislodgement.

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