Active clinical trials for "Hematoma, Subdural"

Traumatic acute subdural haematomas (ASDHs) are common pathological entity in neurosurgical practice . The frequency of (ASDHs) has been proposed as approximately 10-20% of patients admitted with traumatic brain injury(TBI) .Approximately two -thirds of patient with TBI undergoing emergency cranial surgery have an acute subdural haematoma evacuated . Two common causes of traumatic ASDH: accumulation of blood around parenchymal laceration , usually frontal and temporal lobes and there is usually severe underlying brain injury .The second cause is surface or bridging vessel torn from cerebral acceleration - deceleration during violent head motion .

Chronic subdural hematoma (CSH) is one of the most common bleedings of the head. These hematomas develop after minor head trauma and increase in size over weeks. Patients usually present with headaches, gait disturbances, language problems or confusion. The state of the art treatment of a symptomatic chronic subdural hematoma is to remove the hematoma by burr hole trepanation. The optimal follow-up for operated patients remains controversial. Due to the known high rate of a second hematoma at the same place (usually within weeks), one strategy is to perform serial computer tomography scans in order to identify recurrent hematomas early. The radiologic evidence of a second hematoma often leads to reoperation, even if the patient has no, or just slight symptoms. Another strategy after surgical hematoma evacuation is to closely follow the patient with neurological examinations and perform neuroimaging only in case of new symptoms. Advocators of this strategy argue that a follow-up with routine CT scans may be harmful due to additional and maybe unnecessary surgeries and hospital days in a patient population marked by advanced age and fragility. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the role of computer tomography scanning in the postoperative follow-up after removal of a chronic subdural hematoma. Participants of this study will be allocated by chance to one of two study groups: Patients allocated to group A will receive a computer tomography scan on day 2 and again on day 30 after surgery in addition to a clinical examination. Patients allocated to group B will be examined clinically on day 2 and day 30 without computer tomography. All patients will undergo a final clinical examination after 6 months. The study will recruit 400 patients.

Consent will be taken from the relatives and the patient will be taken to the operating room. Inside the operation theatre patient will be shifted to operating table and standard monitors will be attached. The patient will then be given induction agent to make him/her unconscious and unaware of the surrounding and muscle relaxant to prevent movement will be administered. He/she will be intubated with appropriate size tube to maintain airway. In order to maintain anesthesia he/ she will be given either of inhalational or intravenous anesthetic throughout the surgery. Intracranial pressure will be measured using venflon needle as soon as burr hole is created in the skull. Throughout the surgery patients vital parameters will be monitored and appropriate treatment will be given in case if the vitals are not stable.

Epileptic seizures are one of the frequent complications in patients with traumatic brain injury; the incidence lies approximately at 20%. Particularly, acute subdural hematoma (aSDH) is one of the most important predictors for epileptic seizures, which is besides other parameters like age, preoperative Glasgow coma scale, cerebral herniation, hematoma volume and time to operation, associated with worse neurological outcome. In a recent systematic review, the mean incidence of epileptic seizures in aSDH was 28%, whereas one retrospective study focusing on EEG-diagnostic reported very high incidence of epileptiform abnormalities on surface EEG in 87% of patients with aSDH, wherefore the question rises, if the incidence of epileptic seizures is underestimated. Despite successful evacuation of subdural hematoma, approximately one third of patients show no clinical improvement without medical explanation. Routinely, surface spot EEG is performed to detect epileptic seizures; however the sensitivity is limited due to the skin-bone barrier and the short duration of recording. Furthermore, surface EEG is not always available, for example during the night or at weekends, which is an additional limitation for the loss of treatment timing as well. Spot surface EEG will record for only 20 to 30 minutes in contrast to continuous EEG recordings that are performed for hours or days. Due to the clinical relevance of epileptic seizures, several studies investigated the benefit of prophylactic antiepileptic treatment. To date, there is only one recommendation from the Brain Trauma Foundation at evidence class II to treat patients with severe traumatic brain injury with prophylactic antiepileptic treatment during the first week. Beyond the interval; there was no clinical benefit for patients selected. Still, there are some limitations´wherefore the clinical use of prophylactic antiepileptic treatment varies between clinicians and countries. At that time, the standard medication was phenytoin which has several side effects, but to date, there are several new intravenous antiepileptic drugs with comparable effect but better safety profile. On the other hand, there was no sifferentiation made between high-risked seizure prone patients, like patients with aSDH, and low-risked patients which is one of the limiting factors to support a general recommendation. Therefore the role of prophylactic antiepileptic treatment is still questionable. In the clinical routine, invasive EEG-electrodes are commonly used to detect epileptic focus. The benefit of those electrodes is the real time analysis in case of seizure occurrence compared to surface EEG. Moreover, therapeutic effect is directly visible through the monitoring. Therefore the idea of this study was to make a real time analysis possible for patient with TBI, particularly aSDH, to have diagnostic and therapeutic real time monitoring detecting subclinical seizures.

Oral antithrombotic medications (OAM) are used for the prevention and treatment of thrombotic disorders. Among hemorrhagic complications of OAMs, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) may have particularly devastating consequences with high morbidity, disability and mortality rates. The efficacy and safety profiles of OAMs are generally assessed in randomized controlled trials (RCT), but included patients are often highly selected and may not be representative of users in everyday clinical practice in terms of follow-up routines, age, gender, drug compliance, and polypharmacy. Moreover, it is often unclear whether or not traumatic ICHs are registered and reported in RCTs. Drifts in indications and treatment criteria may also be seen in everyday practice and drug discontinuation due to precautionary concerns including compliance, fall risk and comorbidity may be forgotten. Collectively, these factors may lead to other and potentially higher traumatic ICH rates in general clinical use than reported in RCTs. The incidence rates of traumatic ICH in patients on OAMs in the general population remain unknown. In this nationwide registry based pharmacoepidemiological study we will investigate the incidence and case fatality of traumatic ICH in users of OAMs in Norway from 2008 through 2014.

There are numerous reported ways to treat chronic subdural hematomas (CSDH) and practice is still differing considerably between departments. Except for a recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) that found that postoperative subdural drainage was better than no drain, there is no higher level evidence. Another recent RCT did not replicate these findings, but the study was severely underpowered. Aim of this population based study is to compare clinical results (reoperation rates, complications, perioperative death, and survival) between neurosurgical departments treating CSDH with different treatment policies.

Acute traumatic subdural hematomas (TSDH) readmission rate is high (27.8%) with an increase in morbidity and cost for the elderly. This study identifies risk factors affecting readmission rates for these patients and presents strategies to reduce it.

In a multi-national population-based cohort, the investigators want to compare the clinical course and clinical outcome of elderly patients (≥70 y/o) compared with younger patients (< 70 y/o) with acute subdural hematoma treated surgically. An improved understanding of the clinical outcome and the prognostic factors of acute subdural hematomas would allow physicians to make better decisions about treatment options in traumatic ASDH in the elderly population.

This study aims to reduce the recurrence rate of chronic subdural hematomas (CSDH) by manipulating the post-operative intravenous fluid use. The hypothesis relies on the relationship between osmolality and volume changes related to osmolality. We will be administering dextrose 5% in 1/4 normal saline (D5 1/4NS) post-operatively to induce brain expansion which can take up the residual CSDH space, to help reduce recurrence rate.