Role of Decompressive Craniectomy in severe Traumatic Brain Injury: An Institutional Experience

Objective: The present study was designed to assess the outcome following the Decompressive Craniectomy procedures performed in our setup for patients presenting with severe traumatic brain injury. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study wherein the medical records of adult patients that presented with an initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) ? 8 and in whom decompressive craniectomy had been carried out for severe traumatic brain injury were retrospectively analyzed. Patients in whom decompressive craniectomy had been carried out for causes other than trauma and patients with initial GCS ? 9 were excluded from the study. The studied parameters included age, sex, initial GCS, computed tomography (CT) brain diagnosis, and the outcome according to the Glasgow coma outcome scale (GOS). Results: The study included 12 patients, and of these 12 patients operated with Decompressive Craniectomy for severe traumatic brain injury only 2 survived. The mortality was 83.3%. The initial GCS and age were not statistically different between the survivors and the non-survivors. Based on the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) only 1 patient had a good outcome. Overall, an unfavorable outcome based on the GOS score was seen in 91.7% of patients. Conclusion: Our study concludes that Decompressive Craniectomy is associated with high mortality in patients presenting with severe traumatic brain injury and does not seem to offer a better alternative to standard medical management.