Role of Postoperative Fever, Serum Procalcitonin, C-reactive Protein and White Blood Cell Count in the Diagnosis of Intracranial Infection After Craniotomy

Intracranial infection is a serious complications after neurosurgical operation. Early identification of intracranial infection is important so that, first, optimal treatment is initiated which may improves outcome, second, inappropriate antibiotic treatment and subsequent resistance are prevented, and third, it will promote shorter hospitalization and less cost. In several previous studies, the values of procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in predicting intracranial infection have been evaluated in neurosurgical patients. However, due to the limited number of studies, the results are not convincing enough and more investigations seems warranted to clarify their dynamic changes in neurosurgical patients without intracranial infection and their role in confirming the suspicion of intracranial infection or excluding intracranial infection from the differential diagnosis.

The aim of the investigator's study is to observe the postoperative dynamic changes of BT, PCT, CRP, and white blood cell (WBC) count, and evaluate whether the use of two or more of these markers may improve the diagnostic accuracy for rational decisions about antibiotic treatment.