To evaluate the effect of three-step disinfection on reducing intracranial infection rate in patients with ventriculo peritoneal (V-P) shunt, and analyze the causes of infection.

A total of 69 patients underwent V-P shunt surgery in Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University were prospectively observed in a single center from April to December 2019. There were 50 males and 19 females, ranging in age from 18 to 77 years old, with an age of (54.32±11.52) years old. All patients were disinfected with "three-step disinfection method" before operation, and the intracranial infection during perioperative period, 6 months and 12 months after operation were observed. The patients were followed up by inpatient observation, outpatient review and long-term telephone follow-up. The deadline of follow-up was December 2020.

All the 69 patients in this study completed the operation successfully. There were no intracranial infection cases during the perioperative period. There were 2 patients experienced intracranial infection from 10 d to 6 months after operation, and no new intracranial infection patients occurred 6 months to 1 year after operation. The cumulative incidence of intracranial infection was 2.89%.

The research has preliminarily proved that the "three-step disinfection method" can reduce the incidence of intracranial infection after V-P shunt surgery, which is worthy of further validation by large sample multi-center randomized controlled trial.