Safia Rahman, Zahid Khan, Seema Sharafat, Shahid Nawaz, Farooq Azam, Mumtaz Ali.
Frequency of ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection in infants on the basis of cerebrospinal fluid analysis.
Pak J Neuro Surg Jan ;23(2):136-9.

Objective: To know the frequency of ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection in infants on the basis of cerebrospinal fluid analysis.Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted at the LRH Neurosurgery unit, pathology department of KTH Peshawar and department of neurosurgery Gomal Medical College. D.I. Khan, from July 2016 to June 2018. All consecutive patients with suspected ventriculoperitoneal shunt infection were included in the study. The age of the patients was up to one year, irrespective of their gender. Infants with closed fontanelle and previous revision surgery for ventriculoperitoneal shunt were excluded from the study.Results: Total 204 patients. The age of the patients were under one year (infants). Infected cerebrospinal fluids were observed in 19.1% (39/204) infants. Female infants were slightly more common (51.3%) than male. Majority (64.1%) of the patients was having age less than 6 months.Conclusion: We conclude from our study that 19.1% of infants with cerebrospinal fluid shunts have infected CSF on laboratory analysis. Most of the infected shunts occur in female infants and in the first half of their age.

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