Effect of a recommended shunt infection prevention protocol on perioperative practices and infection rates in the Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network–Quality
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network-Quality (HCRNq) was established to encourage adoption of evidence-based best practices for the care of children with hydrocephalus. A shunt infection prevention initiative is ongoing within the network, and an analysis of baseline data suggested important practice variation with respect to shunt infection prevention practices. In a first attempt to standardize care, the authors recommended adoption of an endorsed shunt infection prevention protocol within the network, and now present information related to protocol adoption, compliance, and its effect on shunt infection rates. METHODS: A memorandum was circulated to HCRNq sites endorsing and recommending adoption of a 7-step shunt infection prevention protocol. Patient and procedural data relevant to shunt surgery and infection prevention were then prospectively collected from 31 network sites. The relationship between the infection outcome and patient and procedural variables, including protocol adoption, was modeled using uni- and multivariable statistics. RESULTS: An unadjusted infection rate of 3.6% was observed over nearly 3500 shunt procedures, similar to what was observed at baseline, but with a narrower range, suggesting that some outlying sites were brought closer to the network average. An increased infection risk was associated with shunt placement for preterm posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus, the occurrence of prior shunt surgery within 6 months of the index procedure, and the use of antibiotic ointment. A reduced infection risk with the use of antibiotic-impregnated catheters was suggested. Adoption of the recommended protocol was modest, and as a result, significant practice variation continued to be observed. In this analysis, no relationship was observed between infection risk and the use of an infection prevention protocol. CONCLUSIONS: This first attempt to encourage standardization of perioperative practices for shunt infection prevention, by endorsing an evidence-based shunt infection prevention protocol for use at network sites, resulted in incremental protocol adoption. Many shunt procedures continue to occur without the cover of a protocol. Although adherence to a protocol did not appear to influence infection risk in the present analysis, an opportunity to improve remains, with a potential beneficial effect on infection rates to follow. The authors continue to work toward further improvement in this regard.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.178 | 0.442 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".