Outcome of Surgically Managed Depress Skull Fracture in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: To know about the outcome of depress skull fracture (DSF) in a tertiary care hospital.Material and Methods: This study was conducted at the department of neurosurgery PGMI/LRH from 20th December 2012 to 19th June, 2013. A total of 83 patients operated during this time were reviewed and the data including age, sex, location of fracture, timings of surgery, post operative status of the patient, presence or absence of any neurological deficit as well as post operative complications was enlarged.Results: In this study there were 64 males and 19 females with a male to female ratio of 4: 1. Age range was 1 to 58 years commonest decades were 5 – 10 years 36.10% (group 2) and 10 – 20 (16.9%) and 20 – 30 (15.7%) years (group 3 and 4) comprising respectively. The most common region was the parietal 30 (36.1%) followed by frontal 26 (31.3%). The right side was more affected than the left side (60.2% vs. 39.8%). The time of surgery was mostly in the interval between 9pm to 6am. More than 90% has good outcome with minimal neurologic deficit, while three patients expired who initially had a very low GCS score. One patient has dysphasia post operatively and 2 had weakness of the upper limbs who were operated for the frontoparietal fracture.Conclusion: DSF is a common emergency encountered in a neurosurgical unit and the timely management of these patients is crucial to avoid any complication. If managed timely they have very gratifying results