CRANIECTOMY IN BASAL GANGLIA HEMORRHAGE
CT; and (2) rapid neurologic deterioration. Patients with ICH from cerebral aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation, brain tumor, or head trauma were excluded.
A total of 84 patients were recruited in this study: 38 patients underwent decompressive craniectomy in addition to hematoma evacuation whereas the other 46 patients re- ceived hematoma evacuation only. Decompressive craniec- tomies were performed on patients whose intracerebral pressure (ICP) was expected to increase significantly after evacuation of the hematoma because of large ICH volume and severe midline shift preoperation. A portion of frontal, temporal, and parietal bone was removed by craniectomy and the size of decompression was about 8 3 10 cm2. Intracerebral hematoma was evacuated by transcortical approach with the aid of a surgical microscope.
The baseline characteristics of patients in each group were collected from medical records, including: age, sex, history of hypertension, clinical presentation, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score on admission and before surgery, timing of surgery, and preoperative head CT manifestation such as ICH volume and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). The ICH volume was calculated using the formula A 3 B 3 C/2, where A, B, and C represented the dimen- sions of CT hyperdensity in 3 axes perpendicular to each other.7 ICH score was calculated as described previously.8
Outcome was assessed by 30-day mortality and 6-month Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). In the 6-month functional outcome assessment, a dichotomy was made between poor outcome (GOS score 1-2; 1 5 death; 2 5 vegetative state) and functional survival (GOS score 3-5; 3 5 severe disability, dependent; 4 5 moderate disability, indepen- dent; 5 5 full recovery or minimal disability). Both 30-day mortality and 6-month functional survival were compared between the different treatment groups.