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CASE REPORT article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Neurosurgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1533629
This article is part of the Research Topic Surgical Skills and Continuing Medical Education in Neurosurgery: Past, Present and Future View all articles
Subgaleal drainage removal results in a fatal complication after burr-hole evacuation of chronic subdural hematoma
Provisionally accepted- University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany
Placement of a drain in subgaleal space in the management of chronic subdural hematomas is a common technique. Subgaleal drains are considered a safe, effective and minimally invasive technique with lowcomplication rate. In this report, we present a rare but tragic adverse complication following the removal of a subgaleal drainage in a patient who had undergone an evacuation of a subdural bleeding. Although existing data indicates that the risk of cortical surface damage during drain removal is minimal, one must be aware of rare complications such as inadvertent injury to subcutaneous vascular structures culminating in an acute subdural hematoma.
Keywords: subgaleal drainage, subdural drainage, chronic subdural hematoma, drainage techniques, Duret hemorrhage
Received: 24 Nov 2024; Accepted: 05 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Karamani, Januzi, Eckard, Senft and Baumgarten. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lydia Karamani, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany
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