THE EFFECT OF SUBCUTANEOUS TUNNELING ON EXTERNAL LUMBAR DRAINAGE COMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Introduction Patients with a lumbar catheter become prone to infection due to the outflow of CSF. This research aimed to investigate how tunneled lumbar drainage affected infection in patients undergoing lumbar drainage. Materials and Methods This study was conducted on patients with lumbar drainage who were hospitalized for various clinical reasons. Subcutaneous drain length was measured by post-procedural lumbar tomography. The length of the lumbar drainage catheter, the duration of lumbar drainage, fever monitoring, CSF leakage, biochemical blood tests, the length of hospitalization, infection were recorded. Results This study comprised a total of 93 cases with external lumbar drainage. 51 (54.8%) of the 93 cases were inserted using the classic technique, 42 (45.2%) were inserted using the tunneled technique. The rate of CSF leakage was decreased using the tunneling approach (p = 0.003). A significant correlation was established between CSF leakage around the drain and subcutaneous drain length. CSF culture was negative in 78.8% of patients with subcutaneous drain lengths between 0 cm and 3 cm, and 100% of patients with subcutaneous drain lengths of 5 cm or more. Seven days or less was the cutoff value for negative CSF culture. Conclusion External lumbar draining can lead to issues such as infection and CSF leakage. The tunneling procedure is straight forward, affordable, and successfully prevents these complications.