Bedside Intracranial Hematoma Evacuation and Intraparenchymal Drain Placement for Spontaneous Intracranial Hematoma Larger than 30cc in Volume: Institutional Experience and Patient Outcomes

Efficacy and safety of bedside percutaneous three-millimeter twist-drill trephination under local anesthesia-a retrospective study of 1000 patients

PURPOSE

Percutaneous 3-mm twist-drill trephination (TDT) under local anesthesia as a bedside operative technique is an alternative to the conventional open surgical trephination in the operating theatre. The aim of this study was to verify the efficacy and safety of this minimal invasive procedure.

METHODS

This retrospective study comprises 1000 patients who were treated with TDT under local anesthesia at bedside due to chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and hydrocephalus (HYD) as a result of subarachnoid hemorrhage or non-hemorrhagic causes, increased intracranial pressure (IIP) in traumatic brain injury or non-traumatic brain edema, and other pathologies (OP) requiring drainage. Medical records, clinical outcome, and results of pre- and postoperative computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) were analyzed.

RESULTS

Indications for TDT were cSDH (n = 275; 27.5%), ICH (n = 291; 29.1%), HYD (n = 316; 31.6%), IIP (n = 112; 11.2%), and OP (n = 6; 0.6%). Overall, primary catheter placement was sufficient in 93.8% of trephinations. Complication rate was 14.1% and mainly related to primary catheter malposition (6.2%), infections (5.2%), and secondary hemorrhage (2.7%); the majority of which were clinically inapparent puncture channel bleedings not requiring surgical intervention. The revision rate was 13%.

CONCLUSIONS

Bedside TDT under local anesthesia has proven to be an effective and safe alternative to the conventional burr-hole operative technique as usually performed under general anesthesia in the operation theatre, and may be particularly useful in emergency cases as well as in elderly and multimorbid patients.

Minimally Invasive Surgery for Spontaneous Intracerebral Hematoma. Real-Life Implementation Model and Economic Estimation

Objective

Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage is characterized by high fatality outcomes, even under best medical treatment. Recently, minimally invasive surgical (MIS) evacuation of the hematoma has shown promising results and may soon be implemented in the clinical practice. Hereby, we intended to foresee the logistic requirements for an early hematoma evacuation protocol, as well as to evaluate in a real-life implementation model the cost-utility of the two main MIS techniques for hemorrhagic stroke (catheter evacuation plus thrombolysis and neuroendoscopic aspiration).

Methods

Data were obtained from the pool of hemorrhagic-stroke patients admitted to our institution during an annual period (2020-2021) and contrasted to the reported results in published trials of MIS techniques. Potential candidates for surgical treatment were identified according to the inclusion/exclusion criteria established in these trials. Then, a cost-utility analysis was performed, which explored the incremental cost per unit of health gained with a given treatment. The treatment effect was measured by differences in modified Rankin Score, and subsequently converted to quality-adjusted life years (QALY).

Results

Of the 137 patients admitted to our center with supratentorial spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage in a 1-year period, 17 (12.4%) were potential candidates for the catheter evacuation plus thrombolysis technique (Minimally Invasive Surgery with Thrombolysis in Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation trial, MISTIE III criteria) and 59 (43.0%) for the neuroendoscopic aspiration technique (Dutch Intracerebral Hemorrhage Surgery Trial Pilot Study, DIST criteria). The incremental cost-utility ratio was € 76,533.13 per QALY for the catheter-based evacuation and € 60,703.89 per QALY for the endoscopic-based technique.

Conclusion

Around 12-43% of patients admitted to hospital with spontaneous hemorrhagic stroke could be potential candidates to MIS early evacuation of the cerebral hematoma. In our real-life implementation model, the cost-utility analysis favored the neuroendoscopic evacuation over the catheter aspiration technique. Further studies are advisable as new data from the ongoing randomized trials becomes available.