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Background: Iatrogenic ventriculitis is a common complication of the external ventricular drainage. While the procedure and indications for external ventricular drains (EVD) are highly standardized, the treatment of ventriculitis is not clearly defined., Objective: To depict the treatment of iatrogenic ventriculitis currently performed in German hospitals., Methods: A standardized questionnaire consisting of 18 multiple choice questions, each with the ability to provide additional individual answers, covering the diagnosis and treatment of iatrogenic ventriculitis as well as general handling of EVDs, was sent to 121 neurosurgical hospitals registered in the German Society for Neurosurgery (DGNC)., Results: Thirty-three out of 121 hospitals returned the questionnaire. While diagnostics are performed similarly in most hospitals, the treatment varies remarkably. Ten of the 33 (30%) units never applied antibiotics intrathecally and 12 (36%) only in selected (1-20%) cases, while 7 (21%) do this routinely, and the remaining 4 centers vary their treatment. While the targeted systemic therapy after pathogen identification and resistance testing is similar, the choice of empiric antibiotics varies as does the type of drug used for intrathecal therapy. Among the applied systemic antibiotics, vancomycin [n = 23 (70%)] and meropenem [n = 22 (67%)] were the most common, but many others, including ceftriaxone, metronidazol, linezolid, piperacillin/tazobactam, fosfomycin and ceftazidim, are used. There is no standard practice regarding EVD handling. Twelve (36%) hospitals do not replace the EVD after a new diagnosis of ventriculitis, 13 (39%) do so once after the diagnosis, and 8 (24%) regularly switch EVDs after a defined time span (7-20 days), even without signs of infection., Conclusion: Treatment concepts for iatrogenic ventriculitis are very heterogeneous. Thus, there is an urgent need for generating outcome data and defining a standard treatment algorithm with the recently published practice guideline being an important first step.

Children with temporary external ventricular drains (EVD) are prone to nosocomial infections. Diagnosis of bacterial meningitis and ventriculitis in these children is challenging due to frequent blood contamination of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the presence of chemical ventriculitis. The aim of this study was to compare diagnostic accuracy of presepsin (sCD14-ST), a novel biomarker of bacterial infection in CSF, to predict bacterial infection in comparison to the accuracy of established biomarkers like those demonstrated in biochemical analysis of CSF. We conducted a prospective study with 18 children with suspected bacterial meningitis or ventriculitis who had 66 episodes of disease. CSF samples were taken from external ventricular drainage. We measured presepsin in CSF, as well as CSF leukocyte count, glucose, and proteins. CSF was also taken to prove bacterial infection with culture methods or with 16S rRNA gene broad-range PCR (SepsiTest; Molzym, Germany). Infection was clinically confirmed in 57 (86%) episodes of suspected meningitis or ventriculitis. Chemical ventriculitis was diagnosed in 9 (14%) episodes of suspected meningitis or ventriculitis. Diagnostic accuracies presented as area under the curve (AUC) for sCD14-ST, leukocytes, and proteins measured in CSF were 0.877 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.793 to 0.961), 0.798 (95% CI, 0.677 to 0.920), and 0.857 (95% CI, 0.749 to 0.964), respectively. With CSF culture, we detected bacteria in 17 samples, compared to 37 detected with broad-range PCR. It was found that presepsin was present at a significantly higher level in children with clinically proven ventriculitis than in those without meningitis or ventriculitis. Diagnostic accuracies of presepsin were superior to those of leukocytes or proteins in CSF. Presepsin-guided 16S rRNA gene PCR could be used in everyday clinical practice to improve etiological diagnosis of meningitis and ventriculitis and to prescribe more appropriate antibiotics., (Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.)