Subarachnoid catheter placement for continuous cerebrospinal fluid drainage during the intravertebral operations in prevention of postoperative complication

Objective To study the clinical efficacy of subarachnoid continuous drainage placed in the intravertebral operations for prevention of postoperative complication. Methods The clinical data of 104 patients who underwent subarachnoid lesion resection in Neurosurgery Department of Chinese PLA General Hospital from January 2015 to June 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were divided into observation group (48 cases) and control group (56 cases) according to whether subarachnoid continuous drainage was placed during the operation or not. Complications including fever and cerebrospinal fuid leakage, the indwelling time, healing condition of surgical incisions and the postoperative hospital stay were collected and analyzed. Results Five cases in observation group got fever as compared with 8 cases in control group (P> 0.05). There were no significant difference in occurrence of poor wound healing (3 in observation group vs 6 cases in control group), cerebrospinal fluid leak (3 in observation group vs 8 cases in control group), and total complications (11 in observation group vs 21 cases in control group)(P> 0.05, respectively). The drainage duration of (3.5±2.5) days vs (5.8±3.4) days, the postoperative hospital stay of (5.3±2.4) days vs (8.2±3.6) days between the two groups showed statistically signifcant differences, respectively (P< 0.05). The drainage catheters were successfully placed in all the patients of observation group. Despite of existed short-term complications, no permanent neural function damage was found. Conclusion Subarachnoid continuous drainage placement in the operation is safe and feasible. It can be an effective method to prevent cerebrospinal fuid leakage after operation of subarachnoid lesion resection and promote healing of the surgical incisions.