Effect of Intracerebral Hemorrhage Location on Minimally Invasive Evacuation Percentage and Length of Hospital Stay

Introduction: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, with treatment regimens commonly consisting of surgical treatment, like the Stereotactic Intracerebral Hemorrhage Underwater Blood Aspiration (SCUBA) technique. As such, there is significant interest in being able to predict both surgical outcomes and factors that may increase hospital stay duration as this is critical for modulating costs for both health systems and patients. In this study, we aim to understand the influence of ICH location on evacuation percentage and hospital stay duration.

Methods: All patients over the age of 18 treated with the SCUBA technique from December 2015 to April 2023 were eligible for inclusion in this single-center study and were prospectively enrolled. Extracted data includes demographic information, location of bleed, hematoma evacuation percentage, and hospital stay length. Statistical analysis was conducted with two-tailed student’s t-test and the significance level was set at p < 0.05.

Results: Of 232 included patients, 117 (50.4%) patients experienced deep ICH and the remaining patients were noted to have lobar hemorrhages through radiologic findings. Hematoma percentages were similar between the two cohorts, with an average evacuation percentage of 85.9% for the deep hemorrhage group and 81.9% for patients with lobar hemorrhage. However, there was a significant difference noted in hospital stay, with deep hemorrhage patients remaining in the hospital for 9 more days (26.9 days vs 17.9 days, p = 0.0019).

Conclusion : Although patients with deep and lobar hemorrhage had similar evacuation percentages with the SCUBA technique, highlighting the ability of this procedure to treat a range of ICH, patients with deep hemorrhage had significantly longer hospital stays. Additional research analyzing potential causes of this should be conducted in order to improve both patient outcomes and optimize healthcare spending.