The prognostic importance of the volume of traumatic epidural and subduralhaematomas revisited

The size of a traumatic intracranial haematoma at the moment of diagnosis c an be impressive. Haematoma thickness is an inaccurate estimator of haemato ma volume, and association with patient outcome is controversial. In this s tudy computerized volumetry of offline digitized CT scans was used to relat e haematoma volume with both patient characteristics on admission and at th e six months outcome. This retrospective study covered the time period 1981/1990. Ninety eight pa tients operated upon for an epidural haematoma and 91 patients operated upo n for an acute subdural haematoma were analyzed. The relative importance of clinical data, CT scan parameters, and calculated haematoma Volumes was de termined by multivariate analysis. Volume of the haematoma did not correlate with preoperative neurological co ndition or the six months outcome in either group, and consequently is not of additional prognostic value.