Prognostic significance of frailty in chronic subdural hematoma: implications for treatment selection in the era of middle meningeal artery embolization.

PURPOSE

Middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) as a standalone or adjunctive therapy has emerged as an efficacious and safe treatment for chronic/subacute subdural hematoma (csaSDH). The objective of this study is to compare the prognostic significance of frailty in csaSDH patients treated with MMAE alone or with craniotomy/burr hole (CBH).

METHODS

Hospitalization records were identified in the National Inpatient Sample (2016-2020) and the cohort was stratified by increasing frailty thresholds, quantified by the Risk Analysis Index (RAI). Effect sizes of frailty tiers for poor outcome (defined as non-routine discharge disposition) produced from multivariable logistic regression models and discrimination (c-statistic) were evaluated separately in the MMAE only and CBH sub-cohorts.

RESULTS

This analysis identified 13,390 csaSDH hospitalizations, of which 595 (5%) documented treatment with MMAE only. Although all frailty tiers of the categorical RAI were significantly associated with poor outcome in the CBH cohort, lower effect sizes were observed in the MMAE cohort. Discrimination of RAI for poor outcome was significantly greater in the CBH cohort compared to the MMAE only cohort.

CONCLUSION

In comparison to surgical evacuation, frailty demonstrated lower effect sizes and worse discrimination for poor outcomes in patients treated with MMAE, suggesting that frail patients may be more likely to achieve better outcomes following this less invasive therapy. MMAE may be considered as a first-line or standalone treatment in certain patients.