Investigating Factors That Could Associate With Length of Stay of Patients With Acute Subdural Hematomas​

Clay BrockFollow

School Name

South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics

Grade Level

12th Grade

Presentation Topic

Physiology and Health

Presentation Type

Mentored

Abstract

Over 2.8 million people in the United States suffer from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), a brain dysfunction caused by an outside force. Patients with this condition can have longer Lengths of Stay (LOS) and hospital bills ranging up to $400,000. Factors associated with LOS in TBI patients are currently unknown, and we aim to identify them. We hypothesized that certain patient-specific factors predict LOS. To test this, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) provided us with a 212-patient TBI Database from January 2023 to July 2023. To make the database smaller, we decided to filter it to only people with Acute Subdural Hematomas (aSDH), a pool of blood between the brain and its outermost covering. The new total was 49 patients. We chose to focus on factors like age, gender, mechanism of injury, and discharge location. We also used MRIcroGL, a software that can trace lesions from Computed Tomography (CT) scans, on three patients. It makes a 3D model where you can measure the volume of an aSDH in voxels. We noticed that males, patients who went to rehab, younger patients, and people with a larger aSDH had a longer LOS. All of the factors examined ended up having no statistical significance. In the future, we aim to increase the number of patients for more generalizability, find an automatic hematoma lesion tracer, and examine more factors like socioeconomic status. This research could lower patient costs in the hospital if associations are found with longer LOS.

Location

RITA 261

Start Date

3-23-2024 9:00 AM

Presentation Format

Oral Only

Group Project

No

COinS
 
Mar 23rd, 9:00 AM

Investigating Factors That Could Associate With Length of Stay of Patients With Acute Subdural Hematomas​

RITA 261

Over 2.8 million people in the United States suffer from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), a brain dysfunction caused by an outside force. Patients with this condition can have longer Lengths of Stay (LOS) and hospital bills ranging up to $400,000. Factors associated with LOS in TBI patients are currently unknown, and we aim to identify them. We hypothesized that certain patient-specific factors predict LOS. To test this, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) provided us with a 212-patient TBI Database from January 2023 to July 2023. To make the database smaller, we decided to filter it to only people with Acute Subdural Hematomas (aSDH), a pool of blood between the brain and its outermost covering. The new total was 49 patients. We chose to focus on factors like age, gender, mechanism of injury, and discharge location. We also used MRIcroGL, a software that can trace lesions from Computed Tomography (CT) scans, on three patients. It makes a 3D model where you can measure the volume of an aSDH in voxels. We noticed that males, patients who went to rehab, younger patients, and people with a larger aSDH had a longer LOS. All of the factors examined ended up having no statistical significance. In the future, we aim to increase the number of patients for more generalizability, find an automatic hematoma lesion tracer, and examine more factors like socioeconomic status. This research could lower patient costs in the hospital if associations are found with longer LOS.