Cerebrospinal fluid drainage and chronic hydrocephalus in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage patients with intraventricular hemorrhage.

Background: Patients with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) are at a higher risk of developing hydrocephalus and often require external ventricular drainage or long-term ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery.

Objective: To investigate whether cerebrospinal fluid drainage in patients with IVH due to aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) reduces the incidence of chronic hydrocephalus.

Method: A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients with aSAH treated at our hospital between January 2020 and December 2022. The first analysis compared patients with and without IVH, while the second analysis compared IVH patients with and without chronic hydrocephalus. The third analysis compared IVH patients who underwent in different drainage methods which is lumbar drainage (LD) or external ventricular drainage (EVD). The primary outcome measure was the incidence of chronic hydrocephalus.

Result: Of the 296 patients hospitalized with aSAH, 108 (36.5%) had IVH, which was associated with a significantly higher incidence of chronic hydrocephalus compared to patients without IVH (49.1% vs. 16.5%,  < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that IVH was independently associated with the formation of chronic hydrocephalus (OR: 3.530, 95% CI: 1.958-6.362,  < 0.001). Among the 108 IVH patients, 53 (49.1%) developed chronic hydrocephalus. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the Hunt Hess grade at admission (OR: 3.362, 95% CI: 1.146-9.863,  = 0.027) and postoperative cerebrospinal fluid drainage (OR: 0.110, 95% CI: 0.036-0.336,  < 0.001) were independent risk factors for the development of chronic hydrocephalus in IVH patients. Among all IVH patients who underwent cerebrospinal fluid drainage, 45 (75%) received continuous lumbar puncture drainage, and 15 (25%) received external ventricular drainage. Univariate analysis did not show a statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of postoperative chronic hydrocephalus ( = 0.283). However, multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that the drainage methods of LD and EVD might be associated with the development of chronic hydrocephalus.

Conclusion: The presence of IVH increases the risk of chronic hydrocephalus in patients with aSAH, and postoperative cerebrospinal fluid drainage appears to reduce this risk. The specific effects of lumbar puncture drainage and ventricular drainage on the incidence of chronic hydrocephalus require further investigation.