Effects of Newly Designed Drainage Catheter in Treating Chronic Subdural Hematoma / 대한신경손상학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) is a common disorder that is readily surgically treated but has high recurrence rate. This is a preliminary report to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly designed catheter compared with the conventional one in treating cSDH. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 111 patients with unilateral chronic subdural hematoma treated by burr hole craniostomy with closed-system drainage from November 2009 to September 2012. Group A was defined as patients treated with an external ventricular drainage (EVD) catheter and B as patients treated with the new catheter. We measured changes of thickness of hematoma and midline shifting in brain computed tomography (CT), amount of drainage and recurrence rate in both groups. RESULTS: Group A consisted of 54 and B of 57 cases. The mean duration for total removal of hematoma was 42.6+/-13.9 hours in group A and 30.3+/-11.9 hours in group B (p<0.05). The mean amount of drainage counted per six hours cumulatively differed significantly between groups. The result (p<0.05) showed that the newly designed catheter effectively removed the hematoma. The total recurrence rate in group A was 11% and 3.5% in group B. CONCLUSION: The study showed that the newly designed catheter effectively removed the hematoma in less time than the conventional one. This helps re-expand the brain block CSF from flowing into the subdural space and decrease the recurrence rate.