Automated Measurement of Postoperative Skull Defect Volume

摘要

Decompressive craniectomy is a procedure removing part of the skull to relieve increased intracranial pressure caused by various pathologies. To evaluate the decompressive effort, we developed an automated process to measure the volume of skull defects using image registration and segmentation. In 100 pairs of preoperative and postoperative images, our algorithm succeeded in 98 cases. If only postoperative images used, our algorithm was successful in 96% of supratentorial cases. However, volumes calculated this way carried a mean error of 12.9%. We tended to remove a larger part of the skull in patients with brain infarction than those with spontaneous hemorrhage. In summary, the algorithm we developed can quantify the decompression effort made by neurosurgeons. The clinical significance of the size of skull defects is worth further investigation.