Decompressive Craniectomy for Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury: A Pooled Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Decompressive hemicraniectomy (DHC) is widely applied for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although previous studies have indicated that DHC can lead to similar or worse outcomes compared with medical treatment (MT) in patients with TBI, recent trials have suggested the benefit of DHC for neurologic function recovery. Therefore, we performed this meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and functional outcomes of DHC in patients with TBI.

In accordance with PRISMA guidelines, we searched English and Chinese databases to identify relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting DHC for TBI. The outcomes measures included mortality, favorable outcome, unfavorable outcome, postoperative intracranial pressure (ICP), adverse events with hematoma, and hospital stay.

Seven RCTs with a total of 779 patients with TBI were included in this meta-analysis. Compared with the MT group, the DHC group demonstrated significantly lower rates of mortality (P < 0.00001), postoperative ICP (P < 0.00001), and postoperative hematoma (P = 0.01), and significantly shorter hospital length of stay (P = 0.02). However, the rate of unfavorable outcomes was higher in the DHC group compared with the MT group (P = 0.0001).

Our results indicate that DHC could be effective in reducing the mortality rate, incidence of ICP, and hospital length of stay in patients with TBI. However, the proportion of patients surviving with unfavorable outcomes was significantly higher in the DHC group compared with the MT group. Despite the limitations of the meta-analysis, our findings target extremely important topic and provide important evidence to facilitate clinical decision making.