Outcome of Cranioplasty Done within and Beyond 2 Months after Decompressive Craniectomy for Traumatic Brain Injury

BACKGROUND Cranioplasty although a simple elective neurosurgical procedure is burdened by considerable morbidity. The timing of doing cranioplasty and a good outcome remains a topic of much debate. We wanted to compare the outcome of doing cranioplasty within (early) and beyond (late) 2 months after decompressive craniectomy for traumatic brain injury. METHODS The study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital. A 5-year retrospective study of patient records was analysed. Consecutive series of traumatic brain injury patients who underwent cranioplasty after decompressive craniectomy from a tertiary care hospital operated by a single neurosurgeon, were studied. Data was analysed using SPSS version 21, IBM. Associations of categorical variables were compared using chisquare test and of continuous variables by using unpaired 2-tailed Student t-test. RESULTS Altogether 90 patients were identified who had undergone cranioplasty after decompressive craniectomy for traumatic brain injury and were grouped into early (within 2 months; 44 patients) and late (beyond 2 months; 46 patients). Cranioplasty operative time was significantly shorter in the early (59.39 mins) than the late (77.28 mins) with a P value of 0.001. Infection rates were significantly higher in the early (4.55 %) than late (0 %), with P value 0.144. Other complication rates were postoperative haematoma (0 % early, 2.17 % late, P = 0.325), hydrocephalus (0 % early, 6.52 % late, P = 0.085), sunken brain (0 % early, 4.35 % late, P = 0.162), and bone graft resorption (0 % early, 2.17 % late, P = 0.325). These differences were not statistically significant though. CONCLUSIONS Early cranioplasty performed within 2 months of decompressive craniectomy has better outcome in the form of reduced hospital stay, decreased cost, and fewer complications.