Role of External Ventricular Drainage (EVD) in Treating Spontaneous Intraventricular Haemorrhage

Abstract

Background: There is no consensus in the literature on the effects of the development of hydrocephalus on survival and disability after intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) and the benefits of external ventricular drainage (EVD). This study is planned to describe the role of external ventricular drainage in treating patients of spontaneous, either primary or secondary, intraventricular haemorrhage with hydrocephalus.Material & Methods:A hospital based prospective interventional study was conducted in the Department of Neurosurgery of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, which is a tertiary level hospital, from April 2016 to September 2017.Total 42 patients of spontaneous intraventricular haemorrhage, either primary or secondary, with hydrocephalus were selected for this study. All the collected data were entered into IBM SPSS software, Version 24. For statistical analysis, paired t-test to compare the preoperative GCS with postoperative GCS at 24 hours was done.Results:Among 42 patients, age range was 26-75 years with the mean age 65.2 ± 10.87 years. Male were 26 (61.9%) and female were 16 (38.1%). Male-Female ratio was 1.625:1. No patient needed conversion of EVD into VP shunt. EVD drain became blocked in 5 cases which were managed accordingly. 5 patients developed ventriculitis among which 2 patients died and rest 3 improved with antibiotics.Conclusions:The results of present study shows that EVD has a good role in the treatment of spontaneous IVH with hydrocephalus when ICH volume is low (<30ml) and modified Graeb Score is low (≤10 found in this in this study. Preoperative higher GCS or initial improvement in GCS or initial improvement in GCS at 24 hours positively correlates with Glasgow outcome scale which is an indication of good function outcome.