Introduction

This study describes 5.5 years of retrospective data examining hospital and 6-month outcome of patients following decompressive craniectomy (DC). The effectiveness of DC remains uncertain with conflicting results in patients with TBI and stroke [1, 2].

Methods

Data were drawn (1 January 2006 to 30 June 2011) from three hospital databases following approval by the institutional board.

Results

There were 2,148 neurosurgical admissions with 71 undergoing DC. Forty-eight of 71 (67.6%) survived to hospital discharge and 21/33 in both TBI and stroke groups survived to 6 months. See Table 1.

Table 1
Full size table

Conclusion

Survival following DC in this institution compares favourably with published data. Reduced survival in 2011 may be a case-mix effect related to increased tertiary referrals. We will now prospectively collect these data including quality-of-life measures.