Should intracranial pressure reach unsafe levels, the patient may need to have cerebrospinal fluid drained. Implanted external ventricular drains are one of the more common ways to manage and monitor the intracranial pressure, however there are several risks involved with such an invasive procedure, including the risk of further infection. There is a great deal of research focused around prevention of ventriculitis. It is crucial that any procedure involving exposing the brain is performed with the utmost care, as infections in the brain are very dangerous and potentially deadly. When patients undergo such procedures, they are often monitored closely over the next several days to ensure that there were no infections and any instance of even a small headache is treated very seriously. It is also necessary to monitor the intracranial pressure of the patients often enough to observe significant changes that could indicate the presence of and infection and ensuing ventriculitis. It is important not to measure the pressure too often, however, as it could in fact lead to infection. Current research
Due to the poor definition of the condition that is ventriculitis, there is still a great deal that is not known about this dangerous condition. While other, similar conditions, such as meningitis or encephalitis, have been thoroughly researched, ventriculitis is a very loose grouping of conditions characterized by the fact that the lining of the ventricles is inflamed. Because no solid definition has been accepted across the medical community, research in the subject has been slow to progress.
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.