Surgery for patients with severe supratentorial intracerebral hemorrhage

Little information is available on the efficacy of aggressive treatment such as surgery in improving the outcome of severely affected patients after supratentorial intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Our objective was to assess the effect of hematoma removal and ventricular drainage on the mortality of patients with severe primary supratentorial ICH.

We studied 103 consecutive patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit and diagnosed with primary supratentorial ICH. The impacts of clinical factors on 30-day mortality were assessed, including surgery, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score and pupillary abnormality at admission, hematoma volume, and other related factors.

The 30-day mortality rate was 42%, and the median time between admission and death was 3 days (range: 1 to 27 days). Hematoma removal and ventricular drainage, within the first 24 hours of admission, were performed on 11 and 17 patients, respectively. Two patients who were treated with removal and four with drainage died. A logistic regression model for predicting 30-day mortality was performed. After controlling for GCS score, pupillary abnormality, hydrocephalus, and hematoma volume, hematoma removal was identified as an independent predictor of survival (odds ratio [OR], 0.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.02 to 0.92). Ventricular drainage also tended to decrease mortality rate greatly (OR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.06 to 1.76). Patients with GCS scores of 3 or 4 were 4.01 times more likely to die (95% CI, 1.13 to 14.26) than those with GCS of at least 5.

Hematoma removal may reduce the mortality rate of patients with severe supratentorial ICH.