A protocol for diagnosis and management of cerebrospinal shunt infections and other infectious conditions in neurosurgical practice

Infections of the cerebrospinal shunts and other neurosurgical structures are not uncommon in the clinical practice. These infections are mostly clinical emergencies carrying negative prognostic impacts on the patients as well as spending healthcare resources. The low pathogenicity nature of some implicated pathogens results in minimal physical signs that may complicate the diagnosis and mislead the practitioner. Furthermore, little good prospective data exist in the field of neurosurgical infections and most available evidence is derived from retrospective nonrandomized studies. This protocol is meant to utilize the available evidencebased best practice to guide for diagnosis and managing common neurosurgical infections including those associated with cerebrospinal shunts. The effective management of these neurosurgical infections requires a good collaboration between the clinical team, clinical pharmacist and clinical microbiologist.