Postoperative hemorrhage after biomedical glue sling technique in microvascular decompression for vertebrobasilar artery-associated cranial nerve diseases: A retrospective study of 14 cases

BACKGROUND: The biomedical glue sling technique is a convenient and effective method for vertebrobasilar artery-associated cranial nerve diseases but postoperative hemorrhage is poorly understood. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 14 of 1157 patients associated with cranial nerve diseases who were subjected to the biomedical glue sling technique in microvascular decompression at our hospital from January 2015 to January 2020. RESULTS: There were 14 patients with cranial nerve diseases included in this study. A clinical diagnosis of postoperative hemorrhage was made after an average of 41.75 h (ranging between 0.5 and 95 h). A cerebellopontine angle hemorrhage was presented in 5 patients, while basal ganglia hemorrhage was observed in 2 patients. Both a cerebellopontine angle and brainstem hemorrhage was seen in 1 patient. Distal supratentorial subdural hemorrhage was recorded in 6 patients. The correlation coefficient was −0.1601 (p = 0.7094) between the standard deviation of systolic blood pressure and the Hemphill Score, −0.2422 (p = 0.5633) between the coefficient of variation of systolic blood pressure and the Hemphill Score, and −0.0272 (p = 0.9489) between the range of systolic blood pressure and the Hemphill Score. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of postoperative hemorrhage after MVD with the biomedical glue sling technique is higher than with traditional MVD and most cases have a favorable prognosis. Postoperative symptoms are the main area of concern and changes in symptoms usually suggest the occurrence of hemorrhage. Several factors, including surgical procedures, the release of CSF, and blood pressure might be associated with hemorrhaging. We still believe such a technique is an efficient approach to treating complicated cranial nerve diseases.