Relationship of survival rate, hematoma thickness and midline shift in patients with acute subdural hematomas

Objective To estimate outcomes of patients with acute subdural hematomas by analysing the hematoma thickness, midline shift and the differences between them. Methods Ninety-five patients with acute subdural hematoma were retrospectively studied by calculating hematoma thickness,midline shift and their difference with a statistical analysis of Kalpan-Meier,Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U test. Results The hematoma thickness ranged from 5.0 to 40.0 mm and midline shift was from 0 to 35.0 mm.Among these patients,51% died and 49%survived after surgery. 18 patients (19%) showed good or satisfactory results.Kalpan-Meier analysis proved that the survival for patients with hematoma thickness approximately equal to l7 mm and a midline shift 15 mm or whose midline shift exceeded hematoma thickness by 2.2 mm,the survival rate was 50%. Glasgow outcome scale scores were correlated significantly with these parameters. Conclusion The hematoma thickness,midline shift and their difference provided a database from which criteria could be derived, that is crucial for prognosis estimation.