A Meta Analysis About Antibiotic-impregnated Shunt Catheters Reducing The Infection Rate After Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunt Procedures

Object: Evaluation of antibiotic-impregnated shunt catheters whether reducing the infection rate after cerebrospinal fluid shunt procedures.Methods: The authors searched the Cochrane library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Chinese Journal Full-text Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database(CBM)from the beginning to October 2009, and the references of eligible studies were screened. All case-control trials comparing the use of antibiotic-impregnated shunt catheters in cerebrospinal fluid shunt procedures with non-antibiotic shunt catheters were eligible for inclusion, and then the data for a meta analysis.Results: Ten trials involving 5421 patients were included, including three prospective controlled trials and seven retrospective controlled trials. There are heterogeneity for all groups in the measured outcomes with the heterogeneity test. So we used random-effect models to synthesize data. Results from the meta analysis showed that the use of antibiotic-impregnated shunt catheters for internal shunts was associated with a decrease in shunt infection (odds ratio 0.38; 95% confidence interval 0.24–0.62).Sensitivity analysis demonstrated the result was reliable and no publication bias through egger's test and begg's test.Conclusions: It's significant decrease in shunt infection when using antibiotic-impregnated shunt catheters in cerebrospinal fluid shunt procedures, comparing with non-antibiotic shunt catheters.