Advantages
- Gold standard accuracy
- Can be recalibrated in situ and at the bedside
- Allows removal of CSF as part of treatment for raised ICP
- Allows administration of intrathecal drugs
Disadvantages
- Conduit for intraventricular infection (~5%)
- Associated with risk of haemorrhage during insertion (0.9 – 1.2%)
- Can easily become blocked due to their small calibre
- Insertion may be difficult in younger patients with small ventricles or in cerebral oedema
- Involve traversing brain tissue which has rarely led to inadvertent injury to cerebral structures