Early or late cranioplasty following decompressive craniotomy for traumatic brain injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis:

ObjectiveTo evaluate the effectiveness of early ( 3 months) on post-operative complications in patients receiving decompressive craniotomy (DC) for traumatic brain injury (TBI).MethodsThe Cochrane Library, PubMed and EMBASE databases were systematically searched for studies published prior to May 21, 2017. A meta-analysis examined post-operative overall complication rates, infection rates, subdural fluid collection and operating times according to early and late CP.ResultsOf the initial 1675 references, five studies, all cohort, involving a total of 413 patients, were selected for the review. There was no difference between early and late CP in post-operative overall complication rate (RR=0.68, 95%CI [0.36, 1.29]) and the post-operative infection rate (RR=0.50, 95%CI [0.20, 1.24]) in patients receiving DC for TBI. However, there was a significant difference in post-operative subdural effusion (RR=0.24, 95%CI [0.07, 0.78]) and mean operative time (mean difference =...