Prediction of long-term outcome after primary intracerebral haemorrhage: The importance of the site of lesion

Many studies have addressed prognostic factors in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage on early outcome, but there is paucity of data on prognostic factors for functional outcome in the long term. We studied prognostic factors for long-term outcome in a consecutive series of 155 patients admitted to the university department of Neurology in Utrecht. After a mean period of follow-up of 54 months, 89 (57%) patients had died; 49 (32%) were independent. Multivariate analysis identified three characteristics to be independently related with independence in the long run: lobar location of the haematoma (odds ratio [OR] 5.8; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.3-15), age younger than 60 years (OR 9.1, 95% CI 3.7-25) and haematoma size less than 40 cm(3) (OR 6.3; 95% CI 2.2-17). We conclude that besides young age and a medium-sized haematoma also a lobar rather than deep location of the haematoma relates to better outcome in the long term.