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