Ischemic stroke following elective craniotomy in children

Abstract

OBJECTIVEAn ischemic stroke following an elective craniotomy in a child is perceived to be a rare event. However, to date there are few papers on this topic. The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of stroke following elective intracranial surgery at a children’s hospital.METHODSThe authors performed a retrospective review of all patients who developed a perioperative stroke following an elective craniotomy from 2010 through 2017. Data were collected using an institutional database that contained demographic, medical, radiological, and outcome variables.RESULTSA total of 1591 elective craniotomies were performed at the authors’ institution during the study period. Of these, 28 (1.8%) were followed by a perioperative stroke. Radiographic diagnosis of the infarction occurred at a median of 1.7 days (range 0–9 days) from the time of surgery, and neurological deficits were apparent within 24 hours of surgery in 18 patients (62.5%). Infarcts tended to occur adjacent to tumor resection sites (86% of cases), and in a unilateral (89%), unifocal (93%), and supratentorial (93%) location. Overall, 11 (39.3%) strokes were due to a perforating artery, 10 (35.7%) were due to a large vessel, 4 (14.3%) were venous, and 3 (10.7%) were related to hypoperfusion or embolic causes. Intraoperative MRI (iMRI) was used in 11 of the 28 cases, and 6 (55%) infarcts were not detected, all of which were deep.CONCLUSIONSThe incidence of stroke following an elective craniotomy is low, with nearly all cases (86%) occurring after tumor resection. Perforator infarcts were most common but may be missed on iMRI.