No difference in 6-month functional outcome between early and late decompressive craniectomies following acute ischaemic stroke in a national neurosurgical centre: a single-centre retrospective case-cohort study.

Background: Decompressive craniectomies (DCs) are recommended for the treatment of raised intracranial pressure after acute ischaemic stroke. Some studies have demonstrated improved outcomes with early decompressive craniectomy (< 48 h from onset) in patients with malignant cerebral oedema following middle cerebral artery infarction. Limited data is available on suboccipital decompressive craniectomy after cerebellar infarction. Aims: Our primary objective was to determine whether the timing of DCs influenced functional outcomes at 6 months. Our secondary objectives were to analyse whether age, gender, the territory of stroke, or preceding thrombectomy impacts functional outcome post-DC. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of patients admitted between January 2014 and December 2020 who had DCs post-acute ischaemic stroke. Data was collected from ICU electronic records, individual patient charts, and the stroke database. Results: Twenty-six patients had early DC (19 anterior/7 posterior) and 21 patients had late DC (17 anterior/4 posterior). There was no difference in the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of the two groups at 90 (p = 0.318) and 180 (p = 0.333) days post early vs late DC. Overall outcomes were poor, with 5 out of 46 patients (10.9%) having a mRS score ≤ 3 at 6 months. There was no difference in mRS scores between the patients who had hemicraniectomies for anterior circulation stroke (n = 35) and suboccipital DC for posterior circulation stroke (n = 11) (p = 0.594). Conclusion: In this single-centre retrospective study, we found no significant difference in functional outcomes between patients who had early or late DC after ischaemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]