The Efficacy of the Longeviti ClearFit Implant in Craniectomies for Post-Operative Monitoring in Chronic Subdural Hematomas

Plain-language summary

Chronic subdural hematomas are frequent neurosurgical issues that are most often treated with burr hole craniectomies to drain the subdural fluid. At the chronic stage, a subdural hematoma is more liquified and easily washed out through burr hole openings. However, it often requires frequent imaging and monitoring to ensure that fluid does not reaccumulate in the subdural space, that the washout was adequate, and that further intervention/repeat intervention is not required, particularly if the patient develops acute changes in neurologic status or lacks improvement in initial symptomatology. Therefore, these patients require multiple repeated CT head images during their inpatient and post-operative follow-up course. This leads to high radiation doses to patients and high-cost burden. The Longeviti ClearFit Cover was developed to allow for ultrasound imaging through the implanted cover. The skull's acoustic properties prevent ultrasound from being used through the bone, therefore limiting its use in post-operative neurosurgical patients. Using ultrasound would remove the need for high radiation doses with CT, could be done very quickly and easily at bedside or in the clinic to check subdural space or ventricle size, and is much lower cost. This ClearFit implant would be utilized in place of a burr hole cover, typically titanium, that is implanted in most other cases. The aim of this study is to prospectively assess patients with surgically treated chronic subdural hematomas via craniectomy that have the craniectomy site covered with the Longeviti ClearFit, compared retrospectively to a matched cohort of patients that had their craniectomy site for the same procedure covered with the typically used titanium/metal. This will allow us to determine if this new implant results in reduced need for repeated CT imaging by utilizing bedside clinician-performed ultrasound and reduces overall cost for patients.

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