Chronic Subdural Hematoma in Women.

OBJECTIVE: Sex differences in various diseases recently have been recognized as an important factor in the approach to more efficient preventive and therapeutic medicine. We clarified sex differences in the clinical characteristics of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) by comparing men and women with CSDH, as there is a well-known male predominance in the prevalence of CSDH.

METHODS: Clinical factors and computed tomography findings were investigated retrospectively in 490 consecutive patients admitted to our hospital between 2006 and 2015 who were diagnosed with CSDH.

RESULTS: On univariate analysis, women were significantly older than men (P < 0.05). In women, premorbid impaired activities of daily living, consciousness disturbance, acute-to-chronic subdural hematoma, and death as outcomes at discharge were significantly more frequent than in men (P < 0.05). In contrast, women had less frequent instances of good recovery and less alcohol intake (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis demonstrated female sex as an independent predictor of consciousness disturbance at admission. Female sex also was identified as a predictor of death at discharge.

CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated sex differences in the clinical characteristics of CSDH. In the future, management of patients with CSDH with regard to sex differences in disease characteristics could be expected to improve the outcomes of women, which have been worse than in men.