Postoperative complications influencing the long-term outcome of head-injured patients after decompressive craniectomy.

OBJECTIVE: Postoperative complications are common in patients who underwent decompressive craniectomy (DC) after traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, little is known about the degree of association between the postoperative complications and the long-term outcome of adult TBI patients after DC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of postoperative complications that influenced the long-term outcome of DC in TBI patients.

METHOD: A total of 121 patients were studied up to 6 months after DC in TBI. The collected data included demographic, clinical and radiological information, postoperative complications, and Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) scores at follow-up 6 months after DC. Based on their GOSE scores, they were divided into two functional groups: favorable (GOSE = 5-8) or unfavorable outcome (GOSE = 2-4) group. The characteristics of the two groups were compared using statistical analysis. Finally, a regression model was established and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to analyze its performance power.

RESULTS: Of 121 admitted patients, 31 (25.62%) sustained an unfavorable outcome. A logistic regression analysis showed that the presence of Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores on admission (odds ratio [OR] 0.285, p = 0.001), posttraumatic hydrocephalus (PTH) (OR 8.688, p = 0.003), craniectomy site (OR 8.068, p = 0.033), and postoperative progressive hemorrhagic injury (PHI) (OR 6.196, p = 0.026) were independent risk factors that correlated with an unfavorable outcome. Analysis using ROC curves demonstrated that these factors had different accuracies in predicting an unfavorable outcome (AUC = 0.852 for GCS scores on admission; AUC = 0.826 for PTH, AUC = 0.617 for craniectomy site; AUC = 0.616 for postoperative PHI). The performance power of the GCS scores on admission and PTH influenced the patient's outcomes to a similar degree (p = 0.623), and either predicted the outcome better than the craniectomy site or the postoperative PHI (p < 0.05, respectively).

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the occurrence of PTH and postoperative PHI were independently associated with an unfavorable long-term outcome after DC in patients with TBI. Early prevention and treatment of PTH and postoperative PHI may be beneficial to improve the long-term outcome, especially in patients with lower admission GCS scores or bilateral DC.