- Departments of Neurosurgery, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
- Department of Neurosurgery, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Correspondence Address:
Mostafa Raafat
Department of Neurosurgery, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
DOI:10.25259/SNI_103_2020
Copyright: © 2020 Surgical Neurology International This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.How to cite this article: Mostafa Raafat, Omar Abdelaleem Ragab, Osama Mohamed Abdelwahab, Mohamed Mamdouh Salama, Mohamed Ahmed Hafez. Early versus delayed surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral hematoma: A prospective cohort study. 06-Jun-2020;11:145
How to cite this URL: Mostafa Raafat, Omar Abdelaleem Ragab, Osama Mohamed Abdelwahab, Mohamed Mamdouh Salama, Mohamed Ahmed Hafez. Early versus delayed surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral hematoma: A prospective cohort study. 06-Jun-2020;11:145. Available from: https://surgicalneurologyint.com/surgicalint-articles/10073/
Abstract
Background: The optimum timing for surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral hematoma (ICH) is still controversial. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical outcome following early versus delayed surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial ICH.
Methods: This is a prospective cohort study including 70 patients with spontaneous supratentorial ICH ≥30 cc in volume and Glasgow Coma Scale 8–12. Patients were divided into two groups based on the time interval between ictus and surgery; Group A (evacuated within 8 h from ictus) and Group B (evacuated >8 h from ictus). Outcome was assessed at discharge and at 2 months postoperative using extended Glasgow Outcome Scale.
Results: The early evacuation group (Group A) included 44 patients and the late evacuation group (Group B) included 26 patients. Favorable outcome was achieved in 20.5% of the patients in Group A and in 11.5% of the patients in Group B. Mortality rate was 18.2% in Group A and 26.9% in Group B. Three patients in Group A and one patient in Group B required reoperation. The mean hospital stay was 17.18 days and 14.54 days in Groups A and B, respectively.
Conclusion: Early surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial ICH in patients with good preoperative conscious level is associated with better clinical outcome, particularly in the early postoperative period. Early surgical evacuation has no significant impact on the rate of reoperation or the length of hospital stay.
Keywords: Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale, Intracerebral hematoma, Supratentorial, Surgical evacuation
INTRODUCTION
Spontaneous intracerebral hematoma (ICH) represents approximately 10–20% of all strokes.[
The optimum timing for surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial ICH remains controversial. Various clinical studies have reported a wide variability in the timing of surgical evacuation, ranging from 4 h to 96 h.[
The aim of the study was to compare the clinical outcome following early versus delayed surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial ICH in patients with good clinical status.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study is a prospective cohort study including 70 patients with spontaneous supratentorial ICH that has been operated on in the neurosurgical departments of Cairo University Hospitals and Beni-Suef University Hospital in the period between May 2017 and December 2018, and 15 surgeons were involved. Patients with spontaneous supratentorial ICH ≥30 cc in volume in the initial computed tomography (CT) brain and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) 8–12 were included in this study after signing an informed consent as a study participant. Patients with spontaneous ICH due to bleeding disorders (including patients on anticoagulation therapy), patients with hematoma due to underlying vascular malformation, and patients with hemorrhage inside a tumor were excluded from the study. Patients with progressive conscious level deterioration after being initially managed conservatively and patients with progressive enlargement of a hematoma that was <30 cc in the initial CT brain were not included in the study. Patients with pure basal ganglia ICH were also not included in the study.
All patients were subjected to thorough history taking with special emphasis on the time of the ictus, presence of history of trauma, history of recent and past illness, especially hypertension, bleeding tendency or previous ischemic stroke, history of antiplatelet or anticoagulant drugs administration, and history of smoking. Detailed clinical examination with blood pressure measurement, conscious level assessment by GCS at time of presentation, examination for neurological deficits, particularly weakness and aphasia, and cranial nerves examination, particularly the 3rd and 7th cranial nerves, was conducted for all patients. Analysis of the preoperative CT scan findings included several aspects as the side, location, and size of the ICH. The frequency of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) was also documented. Preoperative ICH score was documented for every patient.
The time interval between the ictus and the surgical evacuation was recorded. Patients were divided into two groups based on that interval. The time limit between the groups was 8 h. Group A included cases that were operated on within 8 h from the ictus and were considered as early evacuation cases, while Group B included cases that were operated >8 h from the ictus and were considered as late evacuation cases. The cause of delayed evacuation was documented in every case. Patients were operated on by evacuation of the hematoma through a craniotomy or decompressive craniectomy. The choice of decompressive craniectomy was individualized based on several factors including extensive hematomas, midline shift more than 5 mm, patients with lower GCS, and surgeon’s preference. The approach was either transcortical or transsylvian based on the distance of the hematoma from the cortex as well as the surgeon’s preference.
On postoperative day 1, clinical assessment was done using the GCS, and CT brain was performed for all patients. The need for reoperation based on clinical and radiological findings was documented for all cases that were reoperated. The length of hospital stay was documented for each patient. Assessment of clinical outcome on discharge from the hospital was performed using the extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS-E).
Patients were scheduled for follow-up after 2 months following surgery for the assessment of clinical outcome utilizing the GOS-E. Clinical outcome was based on GOS-E at discharge and after 2 months; GOS-E ≥6 after 2 months was considered as favorable outcome.
Statistical methods
Data of the seventy patients were coded and entered using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25. Data analysis included mean, standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum for quantitative data, and using frequency (count) and relative frequency (percentage) for categorical data. Comparison between quantitative variables was performed using the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-test. For comparing categorical data, Chi-square test was performed. Exact test was used instead when the expected frequency was less than 5. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
RESULTS
This study included 70 patients with spontaneous supratentorial ICH that has been operated upon in Cairo University Hospitals (38 patients) and Beni-Suef University Hospital (32 patients). Group A with early surgical evacuation (within 8 h) included 44 patients and Group B with delayed surgical evacuation (>8 h) included 26 patients. Patients’ demographic and clinical data are shown in [
In Group A, the mean time between the ictus and surgical evacuation was 6.55 ± 1.53 h, while in Group B, the mean time between the ictus and surgical evacuation was 10.85 ± 2.09 h [
Better GCS on presentation was associated with better outcome as assessed by GCS in day 1 postoperative and by GOS-E at discharge and GOS-E 2 months postoperative, with the correlation being statistically significant (P < 0.001).
Increased size of ICH was associated with worse outcome and correlations between the size of ICH and GOS-E at discharge and GOS-E 2 months postoperatively were statistically significant (P = 0.008 and 0.007, respectively). The correlations between the clinical outcome and other factors such as the hematoma location, the presence of IVH, and the surgical approach were not statistically significant.
Regarding the clinical outcome in both groups, conscious level assessment by GCS on day 1 postoperative showed better outcome in the early evacuation group in comparison to the late evacuation group, with the difference being statistically significant (P = 0.016). Group A was also associated with statistically significant improvement in clinical outcome in the early postoperative period on the basis of GOS-E at discharge (P < 0.001). However, there was no statistically significant difference in outcome between both groups based on GOS-E 2 months postoperative (P = 0.819). Favorable outcome defined as GOS-E score ≥6 was achieved in 17.1% of the patients in the whole study group (12 patients); 20.5% of the patients in Group A (9 patients) and 11.5% of the patients in Group B (3 patients). Summary of clinical outcome is shown in [
Overall mortality rate was 21.4% (15 patients); 73.3% of the mortalities (11 patients) occurred within 1 month (operative mortality), while 26.7% (4 patients) occurred in the period between 1 and 2 months. The mortality rate was 18.2% in Group A (8 patients) and 26.9% in Group B (7 patients). The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P = 0.389).
Three patients (6.8%) in Group A required reoperation, while only 1 patient (3.8%) in Group B required reoperation; however, the difference between both groups was not statistically significant (P = 1). Out of the four patients that required reoperation, three showed radiological evidence of recollection within 12 h following evacuation due to persistent elevation of blood pressure, while one case had inadequate evacuation and persistent mass effect that required reevacuation after 2 h. Two out of the three patients that required reoperation in Group A have been initially operated on within 4 h (ultra-early evacuation).
In Group A, the duration of hospital stay ranged between 4 and 50 days (mean: 17.18 ± 12.99 days). In Group B, the duration of hospital stay ranged between 5 and 40 days (mean: 14.54 ± 8.92) days. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the duration of hospital stay (P = 0.680).
DISCUSSION
Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. It has been the focus of many clinical studies aiming at defining the best treatment protocol and to predict and improve the outcome. The indications for surgical intervention are debatable in many cases; moreover, the optimum timing for surgical evacuation is still controversial.[
Pantazis et al. compared early surgical intervention within 8 h from the ictus to conservative management for patients with ICH >30 cc.[
The results of both STICH and STICH-II trials showed that early surgery (within 12 h from the ictus and not randomization) was performed in only a minority of the patients, with most of their patients operated on within a time frame similar to that of our delayed group.[
Different from most major studies, ours focuses solely on those patients who were operated by surgical evacuation of their ICHs. Trials including STICH and STICH-II compared a group with early surgical evacuation to a group with initial conservative treatment that included patients who required surgery later on.[
Our study, similar to others, focused on assessing the effect of timing of surgical intervention on outcome; 62.9% of the patients had early surgical evacuation (Group A) and 37.1% had delayed surgical evacuation (Group B). Many factors contributing to delayed surgical evacuation included lag of diagnosis due to lack of facilities in the referring hospital, prolonged transfer time from distant hospitals, lack of beds in the intensive care unit, initial control of blood pressure for few hours, and the need for perioperative dialysis in renal patients. Various patient and hematoma criteria were compared between Group A and Group B to detect the possible influence of any of these criteria on outcome. There was no statistically significant difference between both groups regarding any of the patients and hematoma criteria [
GCS and GOS-E showed statistically significant improvement in the early evacuation group in comparison to the delayed evacuation group, being on day 1 postoperative (P = 0.016) and at discharge (P < 0.001), but not at 2 months postoperative (P = 0.819). Favorable outcome was achieved in 20.5% and 11.5% of the patients in Groups A and B, respectively. Pantazis et al. reported significantly better clinical outcome in the early surgery group as compared to the conservative group, with no significant difference regarding survival.[
In the STICH-II trial, patients were randomly allocated to either early surgery or initial conservative treatment. Unlike our time limit of 8 h from the ictus, patients who had surgery within 12 h from randomization were considered as the early surgery group. Similar to our study, the GOS-E has been used by the STICH-II trial among other outcome scores; however, we recorded the outcome twice at discharge and at 2 months postoperative, while they recorded the outcome once at 6 months postoperative. Their results confirmed that early surgery for patients with spontaneous superficial ICH without associated IVH was associated with small but clinically relevant survival advantage. Subgroup analysis of patients included in the STICH-II trial suggested a trend toward more favorable outcome in patients with lobar hematomas and GCS 9–12 operated on within 21 h from randomization, which means that a substantial group of the patients has been operated on within our time frame of delayed surgery making the comparison inaccurate. According to their results, GOS-E ≥6 was achieved in 29% and 27% of the patients in the early surgery and the initial conservative groups, respectively, which is higher than our reported outcome; however, around two-thirds of the included patients in the STICH-II trial had initial GCS >12.[
The overall mortality rate was 21.4% in the whole study group. It was 18.2% in Group A and 26.9% in Group B, and the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P = 0.89). The STICH-II trial reported similar results despite including patients with better initial GCS scores; 18% of the patients in the early surgery group died by 6 months, while 24% of the patients in the initial conservative group died by 6 months.[
In our study, 3 patients (6.8%) in Group A required reoperation, while only 1 (3.8%) patient in Group B required reoperation, with no statistically significant difference found between both groups (P = 1). Six patients in Group A were operated on within 4 h following the ictus (ultra-early evacuation), and 2 of them (33.3%) required reoperation within 12 h postoperative. Morgenstern et al. found that ultra-early evacuation within 4 h of the ictus was associated with increased risk of rebleeding (40%) as compared to evacuation within 12 h (12%).[
The length of hospital stay was higher in Group A (mean: 17 ± 13 days) as compared to Group B (mean: 14.5 ± 9 days); however, no statistically significant difference was found between both groups (P = 0.680). This might be explained by the higher survival rate in Group A as compared to Group B. Furthermore, Bhatia et al. have mentioned that survival was associated with increased length of hospital stay.[
Limitations of our study include short follow-up period and the nonrandomization of the patients. Further randomized studies with larger number of patients and longer follow-up are needed.
CONCLUSION
Early surgical evacuation of spontaneous supratentorial ICH in patients with good preoperative conscious level is superior to delayed surgical evacuation regarding the clinical outcome, especially in the early postoperative period. Early surgical intervention might be associated with lower mortality rate although no statistically significant difference has been shown. Ultra-early surgical evacuation appears to be associated with higher reoperation. The length of hospital stay is comparable between both groups of early and delayed surgical evacuation.
Declaration of patient consent
The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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