Minimally invasive therapy for intracerebral hematomas

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) occurs in approximately 40,000 new cases every year and has an incidence rate of 15 cases per 100,000 population, accounting for 15% of all strokes. The estimated mortality rate from ICH at 30 days is 35% to 52%, with half of the fatalities occurring within the first 2 days of the ictus. To date, no treatment has been proven effective in primary supratentorial ICH, and the controversy between surgical and nonsurgical management as the treatment of choice continues. This is mainly the result of the paucity of randomized prospective clinical trials and of the adoption of therapeutic strategies based on clinical series with multiple biases. Nevertheless, more than 7000 surgical procedures per year are performed in the United States alone.