Postoperative subdural hematoma as a rare complication of non-traumatic craniotomy

摘要

Postoperativeintracranial hemorrhageisaseriousand even fatalcomplication after non-traumaticcraniotomy, inwhich epidural hematomaand intracerebral hematomaarerelatively common. Postoperativesubdural hematomais rare,and its pathogenic mechanismremains unclear. This condition is usually latent. Hence,early diagnosis remainschallenging. Previously published literatures in PubMed werereviewed using thefollowing search terms:“subdural hematoma ANDpostoperative ANDnontraumaticcraniotomy.”No articlespecially describing postoperativesubdural hematoma was retrieved. Palmeretal [1] reviewed 6668 patients who underwentcraniotomy and found that 71 patients developed postoperativeintracranial hemorrhage yielding a hemorrhagerate of 1.1%. Furthermore, patients with epidural hematoma or intracerebral hematomaaccounted for 76%ofall hemorrhagecases, while patients with subdural hematoma only accounted for 5%ofthesecases. Kalfasetal [2] reviewed 4992 patients who underwentcraniotomy,and 40 patients developed postoperativeintracranial hemorrhage, inwhich subdural hematoma only accounted for 7.5%. In the presentstudy, wereport 2 cases with postoperativesubdural hematomaafter non-traumaticcraniotomy and discussed the potentialrisk factors.