Current medical research and opinion
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Therapeutic lumbar puncture and lumbar drainage: which is more effective for the management of intracranial hypertension in HIV patients with cryptococcal meningitis? Results of a prospective non- randomized interventional study in China.
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic lumbar drainage (LD) compared to therapeutic lumbar puncture (LP) for the management of intracranial hypertension (ICH) among HIV-positive patients with cryptococcal meningitis (CM). ⋯ For HIV-positive CM patients with an elevated ICP, LD and LP are comparably effective and safe options to normalize ICP. LP increases the frequency of invasive lumbar therapeutic procedures but does not incur more risk of infection events at the puncture site, while LD may accelerate CSF Cryptococcus clearance but may induce more frequent localized infection.