Spontaneous cerebellar hemorrhage (SCH) is associated with high patient mortality and morbidity, but the clinical and radiographic predictors of the postoperative outcome have not been widely addressed in the literature. The purpose of this study was to define the prognostic factors for the two-year postoperative outcome in patients with SCH. We conducted a retrospective study of 48 consecutive patients with SCH who underwent neurosurgical intervention. Correlation analysis was performed to examine the possible link between clinical and radiographic parameters, and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score at each patient's discharge and the two-year postoperative outcome as defined according to the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS). A total of 48 patients with SCH underwent neurological surgery, which included suboccipital craniectomy and/or external ventricular drainage (EVD). The mean patient age was 63 years. Nine patients underwent suboccipital craniectomy only; 38 underwent both suboccipital craniectomy and EVD. The overall mortality rate was 35.4%. Fourteen patients (29.2%) had good outcomes. A good outcome on the GOS at 2 years after surgical treatment of SCH was associated with the NIHSS score at discharge. An increase of one point in a patient's NIHSS score at discharge following neurological surgery will increase the probability of a poor two-year postoperative outcome by 28.5%.
Keywords: Glasgow coma scale; Glasgow outcome scale; National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; postoperative outcome; spontaneous cerebellar hemorrhage.