DOES THE CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID PROTEIN-CONCENTRATION INCREASE THE RISK OF SHUNT COMPLICATIONS

A prospective study was performed to determine whether the popular opi nion that a high CSF protein concentration increases the risk of shunt complications is true. Ninety-five patients were enrolled into the st udy and they had 116 shunt operations over 15 months. It was considere d that the CSF protein content might influence the development of comp lications that occurred within 2 months of surgery. Shunt complication s occurred following 24.6% of operations within this period. This incl uded 12 infections, 13 obstructions and three cases of overdrainage. T he distribution of complications, compared to CSF protein content, was non-significant on a chi(2)-test (p > 0.5). The total protein content of each of the complication groups was also analysed using the Mann-W hitney U-test and the differences were nonsignificant for the infectio n (0.1 > p > 0.05) and obstruction groups (0.5 > p > 0.1). It is concl uded that an elevated CSF protein content does not increase the risk o f shunt complications, and that there is no reason why shunting should be delayed in patients with a high CSF protein content.