Table 2.

Diagnostic Characteristics of Initial CSF Shunt Infections in the Study Cohort (n=151)

	n	%
Diagnosis of first CSF shunt infection
CSF culture	115	76
Wound culture excluding CSF culture	12	8
Visible hardware only	10	7
Abdominal pseudocyst	10	7
Blood culture in VA shunt only	3	2
CSF Gram stain only	1	0
Organisms in 115 CSF cultures
Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus	39	34
Staphylococcus aureus	36	31
Enterococcus species	3	2
Gram-negative organism*	24	20
Other	9	8
More than one organism	4	4
Organisms in 12 wound cultures
Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus	2	17
Staphylococcus aureus	1	8
Other	2	17
More than one organism	2	17
Culture not obtained	5	41
Organisms in 3 blood cultures
Coagulase negative Staphylococcus	1	33
Staphylococcus aureus	1	33
Gram-negative organism	1	33
Bacteremia	12	8
Initial positive Gram stain	69	46
Initial white blood cell count†, median (IQR)	48 (7, 273)
Initial red blood cell count†, median (IQR)	55 (4, 670)
Initial glucose†, median (IQR)	36 (25, 52)
Initial protein†, median (IQR)	110 (41, 447)

Gram-negative organisms included: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=6), Enterobacter cloacae (n=4), Escherichia coli (n=3), Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=3), Klebsiella oxytoca (n=2), Serratia marcescens (n=2), and one each of Enterobacter aerogenes, Haemophilus influenzae, Haemophilus parainfluenzae, Proteus mirabilis

^†CSF cell counts available for 145 children and chemistry laboratory test results available for 142 children