Abstract:Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of long-term extraventricular drainage in AIDS patients with cryptococcal meningitis (CM) and intracranial hypertension. Methods From November 2022 to November 2024, 40 AIDS patients with CM and intracranial hypertension who were treated in our hospital were selected as the research subjects. They were randomly divided into the observation group (long-term extraventricular drainage) and the control group (traditional extraventricular drainage), with 20 cases in each group. All patients received standard antifungal treatment and corresponding intracranial pressure monitoring management. The clinical efficacy and complications (infection, bleeding, drainage tube leakage) of the two groups were compared. Results The total effective rate of the observation group (95.00%) was higher than that of the control group (80.00%), but the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05); the incidence of complications in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (5.00% vs. 30.00%, P=0.037), with infection, bleeding, and drainage tube leakage rates all lower than those in the control group. Conclusion The application of long-term extraventricular drainage in AIDS patients with CM and intracranial hypertension has good safety, can effectively reduce the incidence of postoperative complications, and can reduce the number of surgeries, maintaining normal and stable intracranial pressure, which is worth promoting in clinical application.