DRIFT

Drainage, irrigation, and fibrinolytic therapy – a therapy directed toward intraventricular hemorrhage with a goal of clearing hemorrhagic clot from the ventricle. The treatment consists of the placement of two externalized ventricular catheters with one in the frontal horn of one lateral ventricle and the other in the contra-lateral occipital horn. A solution of tPA, a fibrinolytic, is delivered by one catheter into the ventricles while the other catheter removes a volume of CSF so as to maintain an ICP below 7 mm Hg. Infusion stops when the CSF clears.