The External Ventricular Drainage and Intracranial Pressure Monitoring
Eui Kyo Seo, MD
Department of Neurosurgery, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
ABSTRACT
Measurement of intracranial pressure (ICP) is important in patients at risk of raised ICP which caused by severe head injury, brain tumor, hydrocephalus, cerebral infarctin, ICH and so on. Intraventricular type is most accurate for ICP monitoring. The Kocher point is safe and convenient for external ventricular drainage. External ventricular drain placement has a significant risk of associated hemorrhage. However, the hemorrhages are rarely large and almost never require surgical intervention.Rates of EVD associated ventriculitis range from 3.4 to 21.9%.Coagulase-negative staphylococci and Staphylococcus epidermidis were the most common isolates and were associated with ventriculitis approximately half of the time.