The Clinical Characteristics, Treatment, and Outcomes of Chronic Subdural Hematoma in Young Patients

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of chronic subdural hematomas (CSDH) in young patients.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed young patients under 40 years of age who received diagnoses of and were surgically treated for CSDH between August 2011 and May 2017. Clinical data, computed tomographic findings, surgical outcomes, and recurrence were collected for further analysis.

Results: A total of 101 patients (92 male; 91.1%) were analyzed. Ages ranged from 1 to 40 years (27.3 ± 10.5), and 59 (58.4%) patients had a history of recent head trauma. The most frequent symptoms were headache (86.1%) and dizziness (26.7%). A total of 60 (59.4%) patients had arachnoid cyst (AC), and 8 (7.9%) patients had ventriculoperitoneal (V-P) shunt. After burr hole drainage craniotomy, all patients experienced good outcomes, and 1 patient experienced recurrence requiring reoperation. Sixty-eight patients with AC/V-P shunts had a higher incidence of head trauma (P = 0.014), younger age at onset (P < 0.001), and lower incidence of dizziness (P = 0.013) than did those without AC/V-P shunts. Surgical recurrence rates and outcomes did not differ significantly between patients with and without AC/V-P shunts.

Conclusions: Headache is the most common symptom, and AC/V-P shunts are risk factors of CSDH in young patients. AC/V-P shunt-associated CSDH is associated with younger morbidity. Head trauma is a risk factor for AC/V-P shunt-associated CSDH, but is not significance in patients without AC/V-P shunts. Catheter drainage through a burr hole may be the first-choice surgical procedure in treatment of CSDH in young patients, including AC/V-P shunt-associated CSDH.

Keywords: Arachnoid cyst; Chronic subdural hematoma; Clinical characteristics; Outcome; Ventriculoperitoneal shunt; Young patients.