Reduction of Shunt Infection Rates in Adult Hydrocephalus Patients After Implementation of a Standardized Shunt Infection Prevention Protocol

Preoperative skin antisepsis added to a shunt infection control protocol resulted in a reduction of the infection rate to 0% in 379 consecutive procedures. Key to achieving this success were continuous monitoring and adjustments to the shunt protocol, which the authors believe can be easily generalized to other centers. Larger, multicenter studies should be completed to verify the effectiveness of the protocol reported in this study.