Visibly traumatic as well as microtraumatic lumbar punctures (LP) are very common in the neonatal period. The presence of blood makes it difficult to interpret cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) findings. Clinicians often perform a repeat LP in the hope that some of the red blood cells would have cleared by then, allowing a better interpretation of the CSF findings. There is no published information whether a repeat LP provides any added information to the original traumatic LP, and if so what is the best time to repeat an LP after a traumatic LP. In this randomised controlled trial (RCT), we plan to randomly allocate neonates following a visibly traumatic LP to either undergo a repeat LP at 24 hours or 48 hours later to determine which LP gives more accurate results.
See this in plain English?
AI-rewrites the medical criteria so a patient or caregiver can understand them. Always confirm with the trial site.
Area under the the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of uncorrected CSF WBC count in the repeat LP, with "definite or probable meningitis" taken as the reference standard.
Timeframe: Immediately after the repeat LP reports are available