Risk of surgical site infection in 401 consecutive patients with glioblastoma with and without carmustine wafer implantation

OBJECTIVES: Patients with glioblastoma (GBM) have an inherently shortened survival because of their disease. It has been recently shown that carmustine wafers in addition to other therapies (surgery, temozolomide, and radiation) can further extend survival. There is concern, however, that these therapies may increase infection risk. The goals of this study were to calculate the incidence of postoperative infection, evaluate if carmustine wafers changes the risk of infection and identify factors independently associated with an infection following GBM surgery. METHODS: All patients who underwent non-biopsy, surgical resection of an intracranial GBM from 2007 to 2011 at a single institution were retrospectively reviewed. Stepwise multivariate proportional hazards regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with infection, including the use of carmustine wafers. Variables with P 5 days RR (95% CI); 3.904 (1.003-11.620), P = 0.05. DISCUSSION: These findings may help guide treatment regimens aimed at minimizing infection for patients with GBM.