OBJECTIVE To analyze the clinical characteristics, complications and factors associated with the prognosis of severe traumatic brain injury among patients who undergo a decompressive craniectomy. METHODS Retrospective study of patients seen in an intensive care unit with severe traumatic brain injury in whom a decompressive craniectomy was performed between the years 2003 and 2012. Patients w...

OBJECTIVE Intracranial hypertension (ICH) remains the single most difficult therapeutic challenge for the acute management of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). We reviewed the published trials of therapeutic moderate hypothermia to determine its effect on ICH and compared its efficacy to other commonly used therapies for ICH. METHODS A PubMed database search was done using various combinat...

OBJECTIVE To review the outcome of bifrontal decompressive craniotomy used for the treatment of malignant brain edema due to different etiologies. METHODS The study was carried out at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the period from January 2000 to June 2005, and included all patients who had malignant brain edema due to different etiology and were treat...

OBJECTIVE In addition to obliterating the aneurysm using clipping or coiling, decompressive surgery for control of rising intracranial pressure (ICP) is thought to be crucial to prevention of adverse outcomes in patients with poor grade aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). We evaluated the clinical characteristics of patients with poor-grade aSAH, and compared outcomes of aneurysmal clipp...

Malignant cerebral edema following ischemic stroke is life threatening, as it can cause inadequate blood flow and perfusion leading to irreversible tissue hypoxia and metabolic crisis. Increased intracranial pressure and brain shift can cause herniation syndrome and finally brain death. Multiple randomized clinical trials have shown that preemptive decompressive hemicraniectomy effectively redu...

BACKGROUND Traumatic intracranial aerocele, also known as pneumocephalus, is an uncommon condition that may be asymptomatic or may present with progressive neurological deficits and life threatening conditions that demand urgent decompressive craniotomy to reduce the acute rise in intracranial pressure and the sequelae. AIMS & OBJECTIVES A high degree of suspicion and continuous neurological ...

BACKGROUND Increasing intracranial pressure (ICP) is one of the leading causes of mortality in patients with malignant infarction of the middle cerebral artery (MCA). We prospectively evaluated patients with MCA infarction for one month survival after decompressive hemicraniectomy. METHODS This study was conducted at Alzahra University Hospital, Isfahan (Iran). Twenty patients with infarction...

AIM The association between post-decompressive hydrocephalus and clinical neurological expression is still unclear. In order to investigate this relationship, the authors analyze series of ventricular morphology and level of consciousness at different clinical stages for patients accepting decompressive craniectomy (DC). MATERIAL AND METHODS From 2005 to 2011, 13 patients accepting DC under t...