Thirty five patients with chronic subdural hematoma were treated surgically between 1988 and 1995. The patients, aged 19 to 80 years, were graded retrospectively according to the Bender scale. The clots were removed via burr-holes with irrigation of the subdural space to ensure as complete an evacuation of subdural colletion, and craniotomy with membranectomy. The mortality rate was 16.6% with craniotomy and 0% with burr-hole. The patients who died, 80% were in grade III or IV. The pathogenesis and surgical treatment of chronic subdural hematoma has been controversial, and still remains obscure.
chronic subdural hematoma; craniotomy; burr-hole evacuation