Monitoring Brain Pressure Helps Surgery Patients Recover Faster

Researchers examined 120 patients with a severe bleed inside the brain. All cases came from the neurology department of a hospital in Hubei, covering the period from January 2025 to January 2026. The goal was to find out whether adding a pressure check after clot removal changes patient outcomes.

After surgery, the patients were divided into two arms. One arm received the standard clot evacuation plus an external ventricular drain that continuously measures intracranial pressure. The other arm received only the clot evacuation. To ensure the groups were similar, the investigators applied propensity score matching at a one‑to‑one ratio, which left 57 individuals in each arm.

Once matched, the two arms showed no significant difference in the amount of blood lost during the operation or in the volume of clot removed. However, the total operation time was longer for the pressure‑monitoring arm, while the time needed to actually remove the clot and the overall hospital stay were both shorter in that arm.

The investigators also compared three‑month favorable outcomes (Glasgow Outcome Scale 4‑5), neurological deficit scores, serum levels of endothelin‑1, matrix metalloproteinase‑9, advanced oxidation protein products, cortisol and norepinephrine, activities of daily living scores, and complication rates between the two groups.