Surgical Outcome of Traumatic Intracranial Hematoma at a Regional Hospital in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: To report the experience in the management of 489 consecutive patients with traumatic intracranial hematoma and determine the prognostic factors. METHODS: All patients were classified into three groups based on the number of operations for each case. A total of 538 operations were performed for evacuation of 720 intracranial hematomas. RESULTS: The most common cause of injury was motor vehicular traffic crashes (68.7%) and most victims were motorcyclists (40.1%). The most common type of lesion was acute epidural hematoma (31.0%). The overall mortality rate was 9.6%, and the complication rate was 11.2%. Follow-up assessment of 480 patients revealed that 270 (56.2%) patients made a good recovery, 99 (20.6%) were moderately disabled, 32 (6.7%) were severely disabled, 21 (4.4%) were vegetative, and 58 (12.1%) had died. CONCLUSION: The surgical outcome was significantly correlated with the score of the Glasgow Coma Scale, pupillary reactivity, number of operations, and type of lesion.