Management Approaches in WHO Grade III Meningioma: A National Oncology Trainees' Collaborative for Healthcare Research (NOTCH) UK Multi-Centre Retrospective Study.

AIMS: WHO Grade 3 (G3) meningiomas are rare tumours with limited data to guide management. This retrospective study documents UK management approaches across 14 centres over 11 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with WHO G3 meningioma between 01/01/2008 and 31/12/2018 were identified. Data were collected on demographics, management strategy, adjuvant radiotherapy, approach in recurrence setting and survival. RESULTS: 84 patients were identified. 21.4% transformed from lower-grade disease. 96.4% underwent primary surgical resection, with 20.8% having evidence of residual disease on their post-op MRI. 59.3% of patients underwent adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) following surgical resection. Overall median PFS and OS were 12.6 months and 28.2 months, respectively. Median OS in the group who underwent complete surgical resection was 34.9 months, compared to 27.5 months for those who had incomplete resection (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.27-1.23, p = 0.15). Median OS was 33.1 months for those who underwent adjuvant RT and 14.0 months for those who did not (HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.27-0.84, p = 0.004). Median adjuvant RT dose delivered was 60Gy (range 12Gy-60Gy), 45.8% of adjuvant RT was delivered using IMRT. At disease relapse, 31% underwent salvage surgery and 29.3% underwent salvage RT. Of those treated with salvage RT, 64.7% were re-treats and all were treated with hypofractionated RT. CONCLUSION: Surgery continues to be the preferred primary management strategy. Post-operative MRI within 48 hours is indicated to assess presence of residual disease and guide further surgical options. Adjuvant radiotherapy plays an important part of the management paradigm in these patients with the data supporting an attached survival advantage. Further surgery and re-irradiation is an option in the disease recurrence setting with radiosurgery frequently utilised in this context.

Chlorhexidine dressings could reduce external ventricular drain infections: results from a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The incidence of external ventricular drain (EVD) infections remains high. Chlorhexidine dressings have demonstrated efficacy in reducing infections associated with indwelling catheters at other body sites, although evidence for their use with EVDs is limited. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy of chlorhexidine dressings in reducing EVD-associated cerebrospinal fluid infection (EVDAI). MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane library were queried for articles from inception. The primary outcome was the incidence of EVDAI. Secondary outcomes included device safety, microbiological outcomes and shunt-dependency. From 896 unique records, five studies were included of which four presented suitable data for quantitative analysis including three case series and one underpowered randomized controlled trial. There was a high risk of bias in all studies. A total of 880 patients were included with a mean age of 57.7 years (95% confidence interval (CI) 57.4-58.0 years). In primary outcome analysis, the chlorhexidine dressing group had a significantly lower incidence of EVDAI (1.7% vs 7.9%, risk difference (RD) = 0.07, 95% CI 0.00-0.13, P=0.04). In conclusion, chlorhexidine dressings may reduce the incidence of EVDAI but require future study in randomized trials to definitively determine efficacy.