Spinal cord ischemia remains a dreadful complication after
thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair. The role of cerebrospinal fluid
drain in such patients needs further clarifications. Tam and colleagues
carried out an interesting decision analysis study that supports the
routine use of the cerebrospinal fluid drain after thoracoabdominal
aneurysm repair. They also demonstrated that the use of the
cerebrospinal drain was safe. Here, we firstly discuss the paper's
finding and methodology and, secondly, we try to simply explain what a
decision analysis study is and, broadly, and how to construct a Markov
model.