• Zhen Sun, Shengpu Dong, Lei Fu, Xingyu Miao, Xianglong Duan, and Fei Xue.
• Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
• World Neurosurg. 2022 Oct 1; 166: e435e442e435-e442.

BackgroundPatients with posttraumatic hydrocephalus (PTH) have a high incidence of infection after ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS). In this study, we investigated different risk factors affecting infection after VPS in PTH patients.MethodsClinical data on PTH patients with VPS in Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital from March 2012 to November 2020 were collected and analyzed retrospectively. We evaluated the relevance of patients' sex, age, cause of hydrocephalus, severity of hydrocephalus, types of hydrocephalus, hypertension, diabetes, decompressive craniectomy (DC), abdominal surgery, and duration of VPS surgery in the development of postoperative infection. Predictive values of different risk factors for the development of postoperative infection were analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic curve.ResultsShunt infection occurred in 38 patients (10.2% of cases). We found that patients >60 years of age with severe hydrocephalus, hypertension, diabetes, DC, and duration of surgery for VPS >60 minutes were at a significantly higher risk of developing an infection after VPS (P < 0.05). The area under the curve was used to predict shunt infection using age (0.611), severe hydrocephalus (0.589), hypertension (0.641), diabetes (0.657), DC (0.640), and duration of operation (0.600) as independent risk factors. The area under the curve of shunt infection predicted by whole index was 0.871.ConclusionsAge, severe hydrocephalus, hypertension, diabetes, DC, as well as duration of operation for VPS (>60 minutes) were factors that significantly and independently correlated with the incidence of infection after VPS. The receiver operating characteristic curve that we have developed can predict the occurrence of shunt infection.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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