Resident Opinions on Image Guidance for External Ventricular Drain Placement: A National Survey

Low-quality data on image-guided external ventricular drain (EVD) accuracy are in large part due to a lack of widespread usage of this system for EVD placement. The potential disconnect between user preferences and existing technologies should be explored to guide future developments. The goal of this study was to survey neurosurgical residents regarding their EVD practices and determine the acceptable amount of setup time for an ideal neuronavigation system.

A 4-question survey was sent to approximately 1512 residents at 108 Acreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-approved medical doctor neurosurgical training programs in the United States. The responses were received electronically, tabulated, and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

A total of 130 respondents (9%) completed the survey, reflecting the highest number of neurosurgical resident respondents in an electronic qualitative survey of EVD practices thus far. Residents were willing to accept 6.39 min (SD = 3.73 min) on average for the setup of a bedside EVD image guidance system. The majority chose to use image guidance during EVD placement for cases of narrow slit-like ventricles (86.92%) over intraventricular hemorrhage (13.08%) and hydrocephalus (0%). A total of 90% of all resident respondents misplaced at least 1 EVD with 74% of post-graduate year-7 respondents misplacing more than 3 EVDs in their career. A total of 88.46% of respondents deemed more than a single pass as acceptable.

Future EVD neuronavigation technologies should focus on achieving rapid registration times. These systems may be prioritized for patients with anatomic distortions. Current resident attitudes are accepting multiple EVD passes, likely because of the inherent limitations of the traditional freehand approach. Efforts should be made to encourage the best course for the patient.