Safety and Efficacy of Ventricular Irrigation for Ventriculitis

Official title

Safety and Efficacy of Ventricular Irrigation for Ventriculitis: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Overview

Ventriculitis is a severe infectious disease of the central nervous system with diverse etiologies. Currently, the treatment for ventriculitis is challenging, with poor prognosis. The mortality rate of ventriculitis is generally reported to be higher than 30%, with the highest reaching over 75%. Even among survivors, over 60% suffer from a variety of neurological sequelae, including cognitive impairment, gait disturbances, paralysis, behavioral disorders, and epilepsy. Currently, treatments for ventriculitis recommended by guidelines primarily focus on the selection and administration of antibiotics, while the effects of surgical interventions have not been fully elucidated. In recent years, several studies have explored the use of ventricular irrigation in ventriculitis, indicating that ventricular irrigation techniques may accelerate the control of ventricular infection, mitigate damage to the central nervous system caused by infections, improve the prognosis of ventriculitis, and reduce complications such as hydrocephalus. However, current studies are still relatively scarce, and mostly case reports and retrospective studies. High-quality evidence is still lacking for the application of ventricular irrigation in ventriculitis. This multicenter randomized controlled trial aims to explore the safety and effectiveness of ventricular irrigation compared to conventional treatment for ventriculitis, analyze the effectiveness of ventricular irrigation across different pathogen subgroups, and investigate independent risk factors for different prognostic states in patients with ventriculitis.

Detailed description

Ventriculitis is a severe infectious disease of the central nervous system with diverse etiologies. Ventriculitis is associated not only with community-acquired diseases but also, more importantly, with invasive clinical procedures, including craniotomy, external ventricular drainage (EVD), lumbar cistern drainage, V-P shunt, and deep brain stimulation, among others. Depending on the diagnostic criteria, the incidence of post-neurosurgery ventriculitis ranges from approximately 5% to 20%, with risk factors including age, prolonged placement of EVD, and intracranial hemorrhage. Besides, the pathogens leading to ventricular infection are also diverse, with the main pathogens including coagulase-negative Staphylococci, Staphylococcus aureus, Propionibacterium acnes, and Gram-negative bacilli.

The treatment for ventriculitis is challenging, with poor prognosis. Under currently widely adopted treatment strategies, the mortality rate of ventriculitis is generally reported to be higher than 30%, with the highest reaching over 75%. Even among survivors, over 60% suffer from a variety of neurological sequelae, including cognitive impairment, gait disturbances, paralysis, behavioral disorders, and epilepsy. This imposes significant burden on families and society. Therefore, how to further improve prognosis of ventriculitis, and reduce the mortality and disability rates, remains to be addressed.

Currently, treatments for ventriculitis recommended by guidelines primarily focus on the selection and administration of antibiotics, while the effects of surgical interventions have not been fully elucidated. As an infectious disease, surgical procedures such as irrigation and drainage have the potential to play a role in reducing infection and improving prognosis for ventriculitis.

In recent years, several studies have explored the use of ventricular irrigation in ventriculitis, indicating that ventricular irrigation techniques (including endoscopic ventricular irrigation and dual catheter irrigation techniques) via replacing saline and draining purulent cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), may accelerate the control of ventricular infection, mitigate damage to the central nervous system caused by infections, improve the prognosis of ventriculitis, and reduce complications such as hydrocephalus. However, current studies are still relatively scarce, and mostly case reports and retrospective studies. A prospective controlled study that included 33 patients with ventriculitis divided participants into groups receiving ventricular irrigation treatment and conventional treatment. The study results showed that compared to conventional treatment, ventricular irrigation resulted in higher mRS prognosis scores, shorter hospital stays, and the study also showed a trend towards reduced mortality in irrigation group. However, this study was limited by a small sample size, limited study endpoints and not strictly randomized. Currently, high-quality evidence is still lacking for the application of ventricular irrigation in ventriculitis.

Based on these considerations, this multicenter randomized controlled trial aims to explore the safety and effectiveness of ventricular irrigation compared to conventional treatment for ventriculitis, analyze the effectiveness of ventricular irrigation across different pathogen subgroups, and investigate independent risk factors for different prognostic states in patients with ventriculitis.

Interventions

• Procedure Ventricular irrigation
  Catheter ventricular irrigation can be employed by various forms. Lavage is performed with with each time at least 200ml of saline. Aside from lavage sessions, the lavage is paused, but continuous CSF drainage remains open.

Primary outcome measures

• Clinical cure rate [Time frame: 4 weeks after enrollment]

Secondary outcome measures (6)

• GOSE [Time frame: up 6 months after enrollment and randomization]
• Microbial clearance rate [Time frame: 4 weeks after enrollment]
• CSF test results [Time frame: At 8th day after enrollment, and within 1 week before discharge]
• Cranial CT or MRI indicating [Time frame: At 8th day after enrollment, and within 1 week before discharge]
• Length of ICU stay and hospital stay [Time frame: up to 6 months after enrollment and randomization]
• Complications [Time frame: up to 6 months after enrollment and randomization]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Age 18-65 years old;
• CSF is purulent (it appears cloudy or yellow) and white blood cell count over 1000×10\^6/L.
• Fever (>38.0°C)
• Meet at least one of the following: 1. Patient has organism(s) identified from CSF by a culture or non-culture based microbiologic testing method; 2. Cranial CT or MRI indicating intraventricular floccule or pus.
• With consent form

Exclusion criteria

• With GCS score of 3
• With unstable vital signs such as no spontaneous breathing and blood pressure maintenance drugs
• With severe propensity for bleeding (Such as coagulation dysfunction, active bleeding, etc.), and unable to tolerate the surgical procedures or operations related to ventricular irrigation treatment.
• Pregnant or lactating women

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Single blind

Primary purpose

Treatment

Study locations

China · 35 centers

• The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China — Hefei
• The Second People's Hospital of Anhui Province — Hefei
• The First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College — Wuhu
• Xuanwu Hospital Capital Medical University — Beijing
• The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University — Fuzhou
• Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University — Guangzhou
• Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University — Guangzhou
• Shenzhen Second People's Hospital — Shenzhen
• … and 27 more centers

Publications

• Tunkel AR, Hasbun R, Bhimraj A, Byers K, Kaplan SL, Scheld WM, van de Beek D, Bleck TP, Garton HJL, Zunt JR. 2017 Infectious Diseases Society of America's Clinical Practice Guidelines for Healthcare-Associated Ventriculitis and Meningitis. Clin Infect Dis. 2017 Mar 15;64(6):e34-e65. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciw861. PMID 28203777
• Al Menabbawy A, El Refaee E, Soliman MAR, Elborady MA, Katri MA, Fleck S, Schroeder HWS, Zohdi A. Outcome improvement in cerebral ventriculitis after ventricular irrigation: a prospective controlled study. J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2020 Sep 4;26(6):682-690. doi: 10.3171/2020.5.PEDS2063. Print 2020 Dec 1. PMID 32886918
• Hasbun R. Healthcare-associated ventriculitis: current and emerging diagnostic and treatment strategies. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2021 Aug;19(8):993-999. doi: 10.1080/14787210.2021.1866544. Epub 2020 Dec 24. PMID 33334204
• Humphreys H, Jenks PJ. Surveillance and management of ventriculitis following neurosurgery. J Hosp Infect. 2015 Apr;89(4):281-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2014.12.019. Epub 2015 Jan 29. PMID 25687249
• Rogers T, Sok K, Erickson T, Aguilera E, Wootton SH, Murray KO, Hasbun R. Impact of Antibiotic Therapy in the Microbiological Yield of Healthcare-Associated Ventriculitis and Meningitis. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019 Feb 6;6(3):ofz050. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz050. eCollection 2019 Mar. PMID 30899767
• Karvouniaris M, Brotis A, Tsiakos K, Palli E, Koulenti D. Current Perspectives on the Diagnosis and Management of Healthcare-Associated Ventriculitis and Meningitis. Infect Drug Resist. 2022 Feb 28;15:697-721. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S326456. eCollection 2022. PMID 35250284
• Karvouniaris M, Brotis AG, Tsiamalou P, Fountas KN. The Role of Intraventricular Antibiotics in the Treatment of Nosocomial Ventriculitis/Meningitis from Gram-Negative Pathogens: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. World Neurosurg. 2018 Dec;120:e637-e650. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2018.08.138. Epub 2018 Aug 29. PMID 30172065
• Luque-Paz D, Revest M, Eugene F, Boukthir S, Dejoies L, Tattevin P, Le Reste PJ. Ventriculitis: A Severe Complication of Central Nervous System Infections. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Apr 29;8(6):ofab216. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab216. eCollection 2021 Jun. PMID 34095339

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06358209 · LY2024-045-B

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗