CT-Based Quantitative Analysis for Pathological Features Associated With Postoperative Recurrence and Potential Application Upon Artificial Intelligence: A Narrative Review With a Focus on Chronic Subdural Hematomas

Recurrent Psychotic Depression Associated with Chronic Subdural Haematoma: A Case Report

Chronic subdural hematomas (CSDH) with isolated psychiatric presentation are rare. In this paper, we report a case of 77-year-old-female patient who had psychotic depression after repetitive head trauma without any neurological symptoms. The brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed an 20 mm subdural hematoma in the right frontoparietal region and a 7 mm subdural hematoma in the left frontal region. The psychiatric symptoms improved within the first week after evacuation but relapsed with the occurrence of right sided pneumocephalus. In the follow up, with the disappearance of the pneumocephalus, the psychiatric symptoms improved. It should be kept in mind that isolated psychiatric symptoms can be seen due to subdural hematoma and evacuation of the hematoma has an important role in improving the psychiatric symptoms.

Correlating Age and Hematoma Volume with Extent of Midline Shift in Acute Subdural Hematoma Patients: Validation of an Artificial Intelligence Tool for Volumetric Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Decision for intervention in acute subdural hematoma patients is based on a combination of clinical and radiographic factors. Age has been suggested as a factor to be strongly considered when interpreting midline shift (MLS) and hematoma volume data for assessing critical clinical severity during operative intervention decisions for acute subdural hematoma patients. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the use of an automated volumetric analysis tool to measure hematoma volume and MLS and quantify their relationship with age.

METHODS

A total of 1789 acute subdural hematoma patients were analyzed using qER-Quant software (Qure.ai, Mumbai, India) for MLS and hematoma volume measurements. Univariable and multivariable regressions analyzed association between MLS, hematoma volume, age, and MLS:hematoma volume ratio.

RESULTS

In comparison to young patients (≤ 70 years), old patients (>70 years) had significantly higher average hematoma volume (old: 62.2 mL vs. young 46.8 mL, P < 0.0001), lower average MLS (old: 6.6 mm vs. young: 7.4 mm, P = 0.025), and lower average MLS:hematoma volume ratio (old: 0.11 mm/mL vs. young 0.15 mm/mL, P < 0.0001). Young patients had an average of 1.5 mm greater MLS for a given hematoma volume in comparison to old patients. With increasing age, the ratio between MLS and hematoma volume significantly decreases (P = 0.0002).

CONCLUSIONS

Commercially available, automated, artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools may be used for obtaining quantitative radiographic measurement data in patients with acute subdural hematoma. Our quantitative results are consistent with the qualitative relationship previously established between age, hematoma volume, and MLS, which supports the validity of using AI-based tools for acute subdural hematoma volume estimation.

Feasibility, Clinical Potential, and Limitations of Trans-Burr Hole Ultrasound for Postoperative Evaluation of Chronic Subdural Hematoma: A Prospective Pilot Study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is commonly managed through burr hole surgery. Routine follow-up using computed tomography (CT) imaging is frequently used at many institutions, contributing to significant radiation exposure. This study evaluates the feasibility, safety, and reliability of trans-burr hole sonography as an alternative postoperative imaging modality, aiming to reduce radiation exposure by decreasing the frequency of CT scans.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective pilot study on 20 patients who underwent burr hole surgery for CSDH. Postoperative imaging included both CT and sonographic examinations through the burr hole. We assessed the ability to measure residual subdural fluid thickness under the burr hole sonographically compared with CT, the occurrence of complications, and the potential factors affecting sonographic image quality. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to demonstrate relationships between CT and ultrasound and axial and coronal ultrasound.

RESULTS

Sonography through the burr hole was feasible in 73.5% of cases, providing measurements of residual fluid that closely paralleled CT findings, with an average discrepancy of 1.2 mm for axial and 1.4 mm for coronal sonographic views. A strong positive correlation was found between axial and coronal ultrasound (r = 0.955), CT and axial ultrasound (r = 0.936), and CT and coronal ultrasound (r = 0.920). The primary obstacle for sonographic imaging was the presence of air within the burr hole or the subdural space, which typically resolved over time after surgery.

CONCLUSION

Trans-burr hole sonography emerges as a promising technique for postoperative monitoring of CSDH, with the potential to safely reduce reliance on CT scans and associated radiation exposure in selected patients. Our results support further investigation into the extended use of sonography during the follow-up phase. Prospective multicenter studies are recommended to establish the method's efficacy and to explore strategies for minimizing air presence postsurgery.

Subdural Lesions Linking Additional Intracranial Spaces and Chronic Subdural Hematomas: A Narrative Review with Mutual Correlation and Possible Mechanisms behind High Recurrence

The purpose of this study was two-fold. The first was to investigate the pathologic mechanisms underlying the formation of subdural fluid collection, an umbrella term referring to a condition commonly seen in the clinical setting. Accumulation of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the subdural space can be referred to in this disease category, disregarding the underlying source of the subdural fluid. However, in these two clinical situations, especially after trauma or brain surgery, fluid collection from the subarachnoid space (subdural hygroma) or from the ventricle to the subarachnoid space and infusion into the subdural space (external hydrocephalus), surgical management of critical patients may adopt the strategies of burr-hole, subduroperitoneal shunt, or ventriculoperitoneal shunt, which present distinctly different thoughts. Crucially, the former can be further transformed into chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH). The second significant theme was the pathogenesis of CSDH. Once the potential dural border cell (DBC) layer is separated such as if a wound is formed, the physiological mechanisms that seem to promote wound healing will resume in the subdural space as follows: coagulation, inflammation, fibroblast proliferation, neovascularization, and fibrinolysis. These aptly correspond to several key characteristics of CSDH formation such as the presence of both coagulation and fibrinolysis signals within the clot, neomembrane formation, angiogenesis, and recurrent bleeding, which contribute to CSDH failing to coagulate and absorb easily. Such a complexity of genesis and the possibility of arising from multiple pathological patterns provide a reasonable explanation for the high recurrence rate, even after surgery. Among the various complex and clinically challenging subdural lesions, namely, CSDH (confined to the subdural space alone), subdural hygroma (linked in two spaces), and external hydrocephalus (linked in three spaces), the ability to fully understand the different pathological mechanisms of each, differentiate them clinically, and devote more interventional strategies (including anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-fibrinolysis) will be important themes in the future.

Endoscopically observed outer membrane of chronic subdural hematoma after endovascular embolization of middle meningeal artery

Background:

Embolization of the middle meningeal artery (MMA) has been established for chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH). Neuroendoscopic observation of the outer membrane of the hematoma was carried out after embolization. The treatment mechanism of embolization is discussed, focusing on the vasculature and inflammation of the membrane.

Methods:

Four patients with recurrent CSDH were included in this study. The MMA was embolized using Embosphere® particles in three patients. The outer membrane was observed with normal and narrow band images (NBIs).

Results:

The net-like vessels were not obstructed in the whole area of the outer membrane, but in a patchy fashion of embolized areas surrounded by nonembolized areas. In two patients, the nonembolized areas showed a hemorrhagic inflammatory red color. Histopathological examination confirmed hypertrophic dura with leukocyte infiltration. Dilated dural arteries and proliferated sinusoid arteries were located in the deep and superficial border cell layers. These arteries were visualized as green and brown on NBI, respectively. In the embolized area, the red membrane turned pink, indicating ischemia and subsiding inflammatory hyperemia. In the third patient, the outer membrane was white in both the nonembolized and embolized areas in endoscopic view, and the net-like vessels were sparse in both endoscopy and histology, indicating a scar inflammatory phase. The membrane transition was not observed in the patient that did not undergo embolization.

Conclusion:

Endoscopic observation revealed that embolization of the MMA blocked both the dural and sinusoidal arteries. Ischemic transformation causing the suppression of inflammation of the outer membrane is a suggested mechanism of MMA embolization.

Herbal medicine treatment for patients with chronic subdural hematoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

In Asian countries, herbal medicines have been used to treat Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) as an adjunctive therapy. This review aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of herbal medicine on treating CSDH and preventing recurrent CSDH.

METHODS

A literature search was conducted on PubMed, CENTRAL, Scopus, CiNii, KTKP, NDSL, OASIS, and CNKI for randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effects of herbal medicines on CSDH.

RESULTS

Seven studies (n = 646) were included. The overall methodological quality of these studies was low. In the herbal group, the meta-analysis indicated statistically significant improvements in the total effective rate and recurrence rate as compared with those in the non-herbal group. Herbal treatments were found to be relatively safe.

CONCLUSION

Herbal medicines might be efficacious in the management of CSDH and prevent its recurrence. Further rigorous studies will have to be conducted in order to make more definite conclusions.

Segmentation of Chronic Subdural Hematomas Using 3D Convolutional Neural Networks

OBJECTIVE

Chronic subdural hematomas (cSDHs) are an increasingly prevalent neurologic disease that often requires surgical intervention to alleviate compression of the brain. Management of cSDHs relies heavily on computed tomography (CT) imaging, and serial imaging is frequently obtained to help direct management. The volume of hematoma provides critical information in guiding therapy and evaluating new methods of management. We set out to develop an automated program to compute the volume of hematoma on CT scans for both pre- and postoperative images.

METHODS

A total of 21,710 images (128 CT scans) were manually segmented and used to train a convolutional neural network to automatically segment cSDHs. We included both pre- and postoperative coronal head CTs from patients undergoing surgical management of cSDHs.

RESULTS

Our best model achieved a DICE score of 0.8351 on the testing dataset, and an average DICE score of 0.806 ± 0.06 on the validation set. This model was trained on the full dataset with reduced volumes, a network depth of 4, and postactivation residual blocks within the context modules of the encoder pathway. Patch trained models did not perform as well and decreasing the network depth from 5 to 4 did not appear to significantly improve performance.

CONCLUSIONS

We successfully trained a convolutional neural network on a dataset of pre- and postoperative head CTs containing cSDH. This tool could assist with automated, accurate measurements for evaluating treatment efficacy.