Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-05T12:23:29.263Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Results of Burr Hole and Open or Closed Suction Drainage for Chronic Subdural Hematomas in Adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

B.K.A. Weir*
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery, University of Alberta
*
Division of Neurosurgery, 11th Floor, Clinical Sciences Building, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G3.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary:

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Chronic subdural hematomas in adults are not technically difficult to treat. They probably constitute one of the most common potentially curable lesions with which the average neurosurgeon deals. Despite this (or perhaps because of it) numerous treatments, radically differing from one another, have been advocated. Fine judgement is called for in deciding whether or not to operate in the first instance, make a flap or one or more burr or twist drill holes, use a drain, employ suction, inflate the brain, leave the bone flap out. In a personal series of 71 chronic subdural hematomas, 46 were treated with a red rubber catheter drain through a burr hole and 23 with a closed system suction drain. The results of this series suggest that closed system suction drainage through a single burr hole is the better of the two techniques. It has important theoretical advantages and the procedure is simple and fast. The complication rate is low and patients have a shortened postoperative hospital stay.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1983

References

Arbit, E., Patterson, R.H., Fraser, R.A.R. (1980): An implantable subdural drain for treatment of chronic subdural hematoma. Surgical Neurology, 15: 175177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, M.M. (1978): Chronic subdural hematoma: a review of 114 cases. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 41: 834839.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fleming, H.W., Jones, O.W. (1932): Chronic subdural hematoma. Simple drainage as a method of treatment; report of eight cases. Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics, 54: 8187.Google Scholar
Gardner, W.J. (1935): Traumatic subdural hematoma; a report of twenty-two cases. Ohio State Medical Journal, 18:660665.Google Scholar
Gilsbach, J., Eggert, H.-R., Harders, A. (1980): Externe geschlossene drainage behandlung des chronischen subdural hamatoms nach bohr loch trepanation. Unfall chirurgie 6: 183186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, D.O. (1965): Cerebral collapse associated with chronic subdural hematoma in adults. A comparison of two methods of treatment. Lancet, 1: 633634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hubschmann, O.R. (1980): Twist drill craniostomy in the treatment of chronic and subacute subdural hematomas in severely ill and elderly patients. Neurosurgery, 6: 233236.Google ScholarPubMed
Jackson, F.E., Pratt, R.A. (1971): Technical report: a silicone rubber suction drain for drainage of subdural hematomas. Surgery, 70: 578579.Google ScholarPubMed
Jamieson, K.G., Yelland, J.D.N. (1972): Surgically treated traumatic subdural hematomas. Journal of Neurosurgery, 37: 137149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaste, M., Waltimo, O., Heiskanen, O. (1979): Chronic bilateral subdural hematomas in adults. Acta Neurochirurgica (Wien), 48: 231236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunkel, P.A., Dandy, W.E. (1939): Archives of Surgery, 38:2454.Google Scholar
Markwalder, T.-M., Steinsiepe, K.F., Rohner, M., Reichenbach, W., Markwalder, H. (1981): Time course of chronic subdural hematomas after burr-hole craniostomy and closed-system drainage. Journal of Neurosurgery, 55: 390396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matricali, B. (1975): Subdural suction drainage of haematomas. Surgical Neurology, 3: 245246.Google ScholarPubMed
McKissock, W., Richardson, A., Bloom, W.H. (1960): Subdural haematoma. A review of 389 cases. Lancet, 1: 13651369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Modesti, L.M., Hodge, C.J., Barnwell, M.L. (1982): Intracerebral hematoma after evacuation of chronic extracerebral fluid collections. Neurosurgery, 10: 689693.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ohaegbulam, S.C. (1981): Surgically treated traumatic subacute and chronic subdural haematomas: a review of 132 cases. Injury, 13: 2326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Putnam, T.J., Cushing, H. (1925): Chronic subdural haematoma; its pathology, its relation to pachymeningitis haemorrhagica and its surgical treatment. Archives of Surgery, 1:329393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, R.G. (1955): The treatment of subacute and chronic subdural hematomas. British Medical Journal, 1: 2122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svein, H.J., Gelety, J.E. (1964): On the surgical management of encapsulated subdural hematoma. A comparison of the results of membranectomy and simple evacuation. Journal of Neurosurgery, 21: 172177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabaddor, K., Shulman, K. (1977): Definitive treatment of chronic subdural hematoma by twist-drill craniostomy and closed-system drainage. Journal of Neurosurgery, 46:220226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tindall, G.T., Payne, N.S., O’Brien, M.S. (1976): Complications of surgery for subdural hematoma. Clinical Neurosurgery, 23: 465482.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyson, G., Strachan, E., Newman, P., Winn, H.R., Butler, A., Jane, J. (1980): The role of craniectomy in the treatment of chronic subdural hematomas. Journal of Neurosurgery, 52: 776781.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vieth, R.G., Tindall, G.T., Odom, G.L. (1966): The use of tautalum dust as an adjunct in the postoperative management of subdural hematomas. Journal of Neurosurgery, 24: 514519.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yashon, D., White, R.J., Bryk, J.P., Dakters, J.G. (1971): Simplified supplementary treatment of chronic subdural fluid collections. Neurochirurgica, 14: 813.Google ScholarPubMed