Surgical Trial in Lobar Intracerebral Haemorrhage

Overview

To establish whether a policy of earlier surgical evacuation of the haematoma in selected patients with spontaneous lobar ICH will improve outcome compared to a policy of initial conservative treatment. The trial will also help to better define the indications for early surgery. This will overcome two of the criticisms of STICH (timing was too late and sometimes location was too deep). The subgroup identified in STICH is clinically sensible and the hypothesis identified for STICH II is in line with current neurosurgical opinion.

STICH II is an international multicentre randomised parallel group trial comparing early craniotomy to evacuate the haematoma with initial conservative treatment, following spontaneous superficial intracerebral haemorrhage affecting the lobar region only. Only patients for whom the treating neurosurgeon is in equipoise about the benefits of early craniotomy compared to initial conservative treatment are eligible for the trial. Outcome is measured at six months via a postal questionnaire including the Glasgow Outcome scale, Modified Rankin Scale, EuroQol and Barthel. Six hundred patients will be recruited to the trial over thirty months. Follow-up will take six months with analysis and reporting taking one year.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes