Abstract:Objective To explore the risk factors of short-term hematoma enlargement or new-onset hemorrhage after decompressive craniectomy in patients with traumatic brain injury via cranial computed tomography (CT), and to improve the accuracy of predicting hematoma enlargement or new-onset hemorrhage.Methods Retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data and cranial CT images of 197 patients with traumatic brain injury who received decompressive craniectomy in the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command from December 2016 to June 2019. The CT images were used to determine whether the patients were accompanied by midline shift, epidural hematoma, subdural hematoma and other signs before surgery, and the hematoma volume before and after surgery was calculated. Univariate analysis and multivariate Logistic analysis were applied to identify influencing factors or independent risk factors of hematoma enlargement and new-onset hemorrhage, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive values of these potential indicators.Results The incidences of hematoma enlargement and new-onset hemorrhage were significantly different in patients with or without subdural hematoma and those with different hematoma volume before surgery (P < 0.05). Multivariate Logistic analysis showed that preoperative subdural hematoma [R = 13.563 (95% CI: 5.325, 34.549)] and preoperative hematoma volume ≥20 cm3 [R = 26.649 (95% CI: 10.436, 68.047)] were independent risk factors for postoperative hematoma enlargement or new-onset hemorrhage (P < 0.05). For predicting the hematoma enlargement and new-onset hemorrhage, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of preoperative subdural hematoma was 0.788 (95% CI: 0.722, 0.854), with the sensitivity being 88.70% (95 CI%: 82.03%, 95.36%) and the specificity being 69.00% (95% CI: 62.33%, 75.66%); the AUC of preoperative hematoma volume ≥ 20 cm3 was 0.839 (95% CI: 0.779, 0.898), showing a sensitivity of 90.70% (95% CI: 84.82%, 96.58%) and a specificity of 77.00% (95% CI: 71.12%, 82.88%). The combination of the two indicators yielded an increase in AUC to 0.914 (95% CI: 0.872, 0.957), with the sensitivity being 90.03% (95% CI: 85.71%, 94.34%) and the specificity being 75.33% (95% CI: 71.01%, 79.64%).Conclusions Preoperative subdural hematoma and preoperative hematoma volume ≥ 20 cm3 exhibit predictive values for short-term hematoma enlargement or new-onset hemorrhage after decompressive craniectomy in patients with traumatic brain injury, and the combination of the two further improves the predictive value.