Comparative study on acute management of intracerebral haematoma using local thrombolysis in moyamoya and non-moyamoya patients: a single institution experience

Purpose Spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) is the main presentation in adults with moyamoya disease (MMD), an unusual clinical entity with a poor prognosis. However, optimal management in the acute stage of ICH in patients with MMD remains a challenge. Since minimally invasive surgery (MIS) plus local thrombolysis has emerged as a promising strategy for ICH, we aimed to describe our experience of performing this procedure in this special population in the acute phase, while focusing on its efficacy and safety.Materials and methods The medical data of patients with ICH treated with MIS and local thrombolysis between November 2013 and December 2017 were retrospectively reviewed at our institution. MMD was identified based on the angiographic images. The primary outcome was postoperative intracranial rebleeding. The secondary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 6-month outcome graded using the modified Rankin scale (mRS). Logistic regression was applied to explore independent risk factors for the above outcomes.Results A cohort of consecutive 337 ICH patients was analysed, of whom 14 (4.15%) were diagnosed with MMD. In total, 36 (11.46%) patients experienced postoperative intracranial rehaemorrhage, of which one patient had MMD. No significant difference was found between the patients with and without MMD regarding postoperative rebleeding (9.09% vs. 11.55%, p = 1.000). Additionally, the 30-day mortality of patients with MMD was 21.42% (3/14), which was not significantly different from that of non-MMD patients (10.83%; p = 0.201). Moreover, 53.8% of patients had poor outcomes at the 6-month follow-up among MMD patients, similar to 43.9% of patients without MMD (p = 0.573). The coexistence of MMD failed to show a significant association with postoperative intracranial rebleeding (p = 0.348), 30-day mortality (p = 0.211), or poor outcome at the 6-month follow-up (p = 0.450).Conclusion Our findings suggest that coexistent MMD is not associated with an increased risk of postoperative rebleeding or poor outcome after local thrombolysis for ICH.