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BackgroundSevere traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients usually need decompressive craniectomy (DC) to decrease intracranial pressure. Duraplasty is an important step in DC with various dura substitute choices. This study aims to compare absorbable dura with nonabsorbable dura in duraplasty for severe TBI patients.MethodsOne hundred and three severe TBI patients who underwent DC and dura repair were included in this study. Thirty-nine cases used absorbable artificial dura (DuraMax) and 64 cases used nonabsorbable artificial dura (NormalGEN). Postoperative complications, mortality and Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) score in one year were compared in both groups.ResultsAbsorbable dura group had higher complication rates in transcalvarial cerebral herniation (TCH) (43.59% in absorbable dura group vs. 17.19% in nonabsorbable dura group, P = 0.003) and CSF leakage (15.38% in absorbable dura group vs. 1.56% in nonabsorbable dura group, P = 0.021). But severity of TCH described with hernial distance and herniation volume demonstrated no difference in both groups. There was no statistically significant difference in rates of postoperative intracranial infection, hematoma progression, secondary operation, hydrocephalus, subdural hygroma and seizure in both groups. KPS score in absorbable dura group (37.95 ± 28.58) was statistically higher than nonabsorbable dura group (49.05 ± 24.85) in one year after operation (P = 0.040), while no difference was found in the rate of functional independence (KPS ≥ 70). Besides, among all patients in this study, TCH patients had a higher mortality rate (P = 0.008), lower KPS scores (P

PurposeTo analyze the clinical character of giant pediatric supratentorial tumor (GPST) and explore prognostic factors.Materials and MethodsWe analyzed the clinical data comprising of 35 cases of GPST from a single center between January 2015 and December 2020. The tumor volume was measured by 3D slicer software based on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) was used to evaluate the short-term prognosis.ResultThe tumor volume varied from 27.3 to 632.8 ml (mean volume 129.8 ml/ median volume 82.8 ml). Postoperative histopathological types include ependymoma, pilocytic astrocytoma, choroid plexus papilloma (CPP), craniopharyngioma, primitive neuroectoderm tumor (PNET), choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC), immature teratoma, atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT), anaplastic astrocytoma, and gangliocytoma. Tumors in children younger than 3 years and tumors located at the hemispheres appeared to be larger than their respective counterparts, though no statistical significance was found. A patient with giant immature teratoma died during the operation because of excessive bleeding. Postoperative complications include cerebrospinal fluid subgaleal collection/effusion, infection, neurological deficits, and seizures. The mean GOS score of patients with GPST in 6 months is 3.43 ± 1.12, and 83% of patients (29/35) showed improvement. Favorable GPST characteristics to indicated better GOS included small tumor (≤100 ml) (p = 0.029), low-grade (WHO I-II) (p = 0.001), and gross total resection (GTR) (p = 0.015). WHO grade was highly correlated with GOS score (correlation coefficient = −0.625, p < 0.001). GTR and tumor volume were also correlated (correlation coefficient = −0.428, p = 0.010).ConclusionThe prognosis of GPST is highly correlated with the histopathological type. Smaller tumors are more likely to achieve GTR and might lead to a higher GOS score. Early diagnosis and GTR of the tumor are important for GPST management.