For the study, researchers enrolled more than 400 traumatic brain injury patients from across the United Kingdom and 19 other nations over the course of ten years. Of the patients treated with medical management, nearly half (49 percent) died within six months after incurring the head injury. Of the craniectomy patients, 27 percent died within six months of injury. A year after injury, 45.4 percent of craniectomy patients were independent and living at home, while 32.4 percent of those in the medical group recovered to the same capacity.
“Traumatic brain injury is an incredibly serious and life-threatening condition. From our study, we estimate that craniectomies can almost halve the risk of death for patients with a severe traumatic brain injury and significant swelling,” said Peter Hutchinson, PhD, professor of neurosurgery at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. “However, we need to be really conscious of the quality of life of patients following this operation which ranged from vegetative state through varying states of disability to good recovery.”
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