Evaluation of the benefit of placing a drain in the epidural space in patients undergoing craniotomy

Background. Placing a drain in each of the intracerebral, subdural, epidural, and subgaleal spaces during craniotomy may be a result of the traditional approach. It may be more appropriate to identify the locations of the drains individually for each case and avoid certain behaviours. We, therefore, planned a study on the necessity of epidural drains, which are commonly used. Methods. The study was conducted by screening the charts of the patients who had undergone surgery at ?zmir Bak?rçay University Çi?li Training and Research Hospital’s Neurosurgery Department between June 1st 2021 and September 1st 2022. The study was of the retrospective cohort type. There were two groups in the study. Twenty cases where only a subgaleal drain was used formed the first group (SG group). Twenty cases where subgaleal and epidural drains were used together formed the second group (SG+E group). A total of three parameters were evaluated between these groups. The first parameter was the myocutaneous tissue thickness on the first postoperative day. The second one was epidural collection thickness on the first postoperative day. The third parameter was the rate of wound site infection development in the two groups. The results of the two groups were compared with the Wilcoxon rank sum test. A two-way p-value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results. A statistically significant difference was present between the two groups in terms of myocutaneous tissue thickness (p=0.035). The mean myocutaneous tissue thickness was 15.8±3.24 mm in the SG+E group and 12.4±5.98 mm in the SG group. The mean epidural collection thickness in the SG+E group was higher than in the SG group and the difference was significant (10.3±3.29 mm and 6.30±3.13 mm, respectively, p