Background:

Decompressive craniectomy (DC) has been used for the treatment of refractory increased intracranial pressure (ICP) in patients with brain trauma and stroke; its beneficial role is still a matter of debate. Little has been written on the role of DC in the setting of patients with intracranial tumors.

Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed our institutional tumor registry for all adult patients treated with a DC as an emergency treatment between January 2012 and June 2019.

Results:

A total of 61 patients were taken into surgery for a DC secondary to raised ICP related to a central nervous system tumor. The Kaplan-Meier curves in the study showed that 18.9 months was the mean survival time (MST) of the global population, 40 patients died (65.5%) during the follow-up period. Patients in the group of over 60 years had a worst survival time than younger patients (p = 0.01). Patients with intracerebral hemorrhage had the worst MST compared with the patients with other etiologies (p = 0.04).

Conclusion:

Our data show that in some selected cases DC is a viable option as a salvage treatment for patients with intracranial tumors.