This procedure is fairly effective, but is rarely able to isolate anaerobic organisms that may be causing the inflammation, giving cause for further research and procedural development.Though they present with similar symptoms and often occur in tandem, meningitis and ventriculitis are two different diseases, so physicians must be able to distinguish between the two. Meningitis is the inflammation of the protective lining of the central nervous system, called meninges. Because of the similar pathologies and cause of the two types of inflammation, they are difficult to differentiate using chemical testing, but show very different visual effects in both the MRI and CT scans, hence their use as a validation that the patient does, in fact, have ventriculitis and not another, similar condition such as meningitis. Treatment
Treatment of ventriculitis is critical. If left untreated, it could lead to severe brain damage and even death in some cases. Currently, the only commonly employed treatments of ventriculitis involve an antibiotic regimen targeting the underlying infection causing the inflammation. Typically, the physician will order the patient be placed on broad-spectrum antibiotics in order to manage the symptoms and control the infection while the cerebrospinal fluid samples are analyzed. When a specific bacterial or viral cause is found, the doctor will change the treatment accordingly. There is some debate as to the most effective antibiotics and the best ways to introduce the drugs (e.g. intravenously, orally, etc. ), however it is agreed that drug effectiveness is limited by the difficulty of non-invasively allowing the drugs to enter the cerebrospinal fluid.
However, most common research into ventriculitis has been focused on the main points of causation, demographic information, and effectiveness of treatments and prevention methods. Causation
One of the key areas of research for ventriculitis is discovering and defining exactly what causes it. There are many bacterial and viral infections that could cause inflammation of the ventricles, but researchers are trying to define which are the most common pathogens, the risk levels associated with various medical operations and procedures, and why the symptoms vary so much on a case-by-case basis. Answering these questions will allow doctors to not only better understand ventriculitis, but better treat and prevent it as well. Demographics
Currently, there is very little understanding as to who is at increased risk for ventriculitis, other than those who have undergone neurosurgery or procedures involving brain exposure. Even then, current clinical practices cant predict which patients will be affected. In order to predict which populations should be focused on, researchers must gather more case information about who is diagnosed with ventriculitis and how they present. In essence, the medical community must compile data of as many details as possible from each case so that more generalized conclusions may be drawn. Treatment and prevention
So little is currently known about how ventriculitis should be defined and those it affects that even less can be known about prevention methods. While treatment is fairly standard for any infection to some degree, prevention is a different matter.