Functional improvements associated with cranioplasty after stroke and traumatic brain injury: a cohort study

Decompressive craniectomy is part of the acute management of several neurosurgical illnesses, and is commonly followed by cranioplasty. Data are still scarce on the functional and cognitive outcomes following cranioplasty. We aim to evaluate these outcomes in patients who underwent cranioplasty following traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke. In this prospective cohort, we assessed 1-month and 6-month neuropsychological and functional outcomes in TBI and stroke patients who underwent cranioplasty at a Brazilian tertiary center. The primary outcome was the change in the Digits Test at 1 and 6 months after cranioplasty. Repeated measures general linear models were employed to assess the patients' evolution and interactions with baseline characteristics. Effect size was estimated by the partial η . A total of 20 TBI and 14 stroke patients were included (mean age 42 ± 14 years; 52.9% male; average schooling 9.5 ± 3.8 years; 91.2% right-handed). We found significant improvements in the Digits Tests up to 6 months after cranioplasty ( = 0.004, partial η = 0.183), as well as in attention, episodic memory, verbal fluency, working memory, inhibitory control, visuoconstructive and visuospatial abilities (partial η 0.106-0.305). We found no interaction between the cranioplasty effect and age, sex or schooling. Patients submitted to cranioplasty earlier (