Is there an impact of subdural drainage duration and the number of burr holes on the recurrence rate of unilateral chronic subdural haematoma?

Abstract

Purpose of the study is to evaluate apossible influence of subdural drainage duration and burr hole quantity on arelapse of aunilateral chronic subdural haematoma (CHSH). Sixty - five patients who underwent evacuation of unilateral CHSH via 1 or 2 burr holes and subdural drainage during aperiod from January 2014 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Duration of the subdural drainage and the number of burr holes used were assessed in relation to an incidence of CHSH recurrence. According to the subdural drainage duration, we divided the patient cohort into two subgroups: with the subdural drainage duration of 1-3 days and 4-5 days. We also evaluated apossible influence of the subdural drainage duration on risk of postoperative infection. An overall incidence of CHSH recurrence was 18.5%. In 45 patients treated by means of asingle burr hole the haematomarecurrence was observed in 10 patients (22.2%), in 22 patients with two burr holes recurrence occurred in 2 of them (9.1%). The difference was however, not statistically significant (p=0.3214). We did not observe any significant influence of age, gender and subdural drainage duration on the incidence of CHSH recurrence. The duration of subdural drainage had not significant impact on postoperative infection rate (p=0.0950). The number of burr holes used does not affect the rate of unilateral CHSH recurrence. Similarly the duration of subdural drainage affects neither the unilateral CHSH recurrence rate nor the incidence of postoperative infection.