• Yuko Okada, Takuya Akai, Kazuya Okamoto, Takaaki Iida, Hisashi Takata, and Hideaki Iizuka.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Kanazawa Medical University, Kahokugun, Ishikawa, Japan.
• Surg Neurol. 2002 Jun 1; 57 (6): 405-9; discussion 410.

BackgroundSeveral surgical procedures have been reported for the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma. Whether irrigation is required is not clear. We compared the results of treatment of chronic subdural hematoma obtained with burr hole drainage and burr hole irrigation retrospectively.MethodsForty patients with chronic subdural hematoma underwent surgery at our institution in the last 3 years. The first 20 patients were treated by burr hole irrigation (irrigation group), while the last 20 patients underwent burr hole drainage (drainage group). The rates of recurrence, changes in hematoma size, and number of days of postoperative hospitalization for the two groups were compared. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the presence of head injury, alcohol consumption, age, gender, or preoperative hematoma size.ResultsDuration of postoperative hospitalization was 14.1 days in the drainage group and 25.5 days in the irrigation group. Recurrence was observed in 1 case (5%) in the drainage group, and in 5 cases (25%) in the irrigation group. In the drainage group, postoperative hematoma size was significantly decreased compared to preoperative hematoma size on the first postoperative day, after which change in hematoma size was minimal. On the other hand, in the irrigation group, hematoma size was decreased on the first postoperative day, but not to a significant extent.ConclusionFor treatment of chronic subdural hematoma, postoperative hospitalization was shorter and the recurrence was less frequent with drainage than with irrigation.

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