Evaluation of Survival of Patients Who Underwent Decompressive Craniectomy: Clinical Series

Objective: This study aimed to examine the parameters thought to reduce the mortality of patients with epidural-subdural hemorrhage, basal ganglia hemorrhage, edema with compression effect due to intracerebral ischemic infarction, and hemorrhage from infarcts and to find significant relationships accordingly.
Material and Methods: The demographic and clinical characteristics of patients, pre-operative Glasgow Coma scale (GCS), duration of the operation after the development of the first event, length of stay in intensive care units (ICUs), infection and antibiotic therapy rates developed during their hospitalization, and long-term follow-up were recorded. The survival of the patients were compared statistically.
Results: In 38 patients with GCS less than 10 points, pre-operative GCS, length of stay in ICUs, duration of mechanical ventilator support, infection, and need for antibiotic therapy were examined. All patients were divided into four groups; subdural-epidural hematoma, intracerebral hematoma, intracerebral ischemic infarction, and post-infarction hemorrhage groups. The relationship between their data and mortality were studied. The pre-operative GCS scores in the four groups were 6.16, 6.73, 7.13, and 6.28, respectively. The pre-operative GCS in these four dead groups were 5, 6.6, 7, and 6, respectively. There was no difference between the variables and mortality.
Conclusion: No correlation was found between all clinical data and survival rates. The benefits of an early surgery shown in previous studies were not associated with mortality in this study. Studies with larger case series are needed for more significant relationships.