Histopathological study of the outer membrane of the dura mater in chronic sub dural hematoma: Its clinical and radiological correlation.

BACKGROUND: A chronic subdural hematoma is an old clot of blood on the surface of the brain between dura and arachnoid membranes. These liquefied clots most often occur in patients aged 60 and older with brain atrophy. When the brain shrinks inside the skull over time, minor head trauma can cause tearing of blood vessels over the brain surface, resulting in a slow accumulation of blood over several days to weeks.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the role of membrane in hematoma evaluation and to correlate its histopathology with clinic-radiological aspects of the condition and overall prognosis of patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study incorporated all cases of chronic SDH admitted to the Neurosurgery department of JLN Hospital and Research Centre, Bhilai, between November 2011 and November 2013. All such cases were analyzed clinically, radiologically like site, size, thickness in computed tomography, the attenuation value, midline shift and histopathological features were recorded.

CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION: All cases of chronic subdural haematoma irrespective of age and sex were incorporated into the study.

CRITERIA FOR EXCLUSION: All cases of acute subdural haematoma and cases of chronic sub dural hematoma which were managed conservatively irrespective of age and sex were excluded from the study.

RESULTS: In our series of cases, the most common histopathological type of membrane was the inflammatory membrane (Type II) seen in 42.30% of cases followed by hemorrhagic inflammatory membrane (Type III) seen in 34.62% of cases while scar inflammatory type of membrane (Type IV) was seen in 23.08% of cases. No case with noninflammatory type (Type I) was encountered.