The effect of postoperative early lumbar drainage on delayed fever after cerebellopontine angle tumour surgery: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background: Postoperative fever is one of the common complications in neurosurgery, and intracranial aseptic inflammation and infection are important risk factors. Continuous drainage of cerebrospinal fluid（CSF）via lumbar drainage (LD) is often used in the treatment of postoperative intracranial infection or aseptic inflammation. Compared with the previously reported placement of LDs after the onset of meningitis symptoms, we designed this randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of early drainage (1st day postoperation) of CSF using the preset lumbar cistern to prevent delayed fever or reduce its treatment time after cerebellopontine angle (CPA) tumour surgery.Methods: Patients suffering from CPA tumours and who underwent resection of the tumour with an intraoperative dura opening time >4 h were recruited for this study. The study is a 2-arm RCT to compare an intervention group receiving postoperative early LD and standard postoperative care to a control group receiving standard postoperative care only. The duration of fever in patients with delayed fever after operation, as the main outcome, will be compared in the two groups.Discussion: Here, we present the study design of a prospective RCT to evaluate the safety and efficacy of using preoperative preset LD to treat or reduce postoperative delayed fever.Trial registration: www.chictr.org.cn identifier: ChiCTR2100049057; registered on July 20, 2021.