To summarize the treatment experience of different kinds of subdural effusion.

Twenty-seven patients with subdural effusion who underwent surgery and were followed up completely from January 2009 to October 2014 in Neurosurgery Department of the Sixth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. According to the preoperative imaging features, the patients were divided into bloody subdural effusion (9 patients) and non bloody subdural effusion (18 patients). According to whether the effusion is bloody or not, the individualized treatment plan was selected and observed.

Nine patients with bloody subdural effusion underwent extradrilling drainage, 8 patients of effusion subsided, and 1 patient was invalid. After that, the patients were cured by subaracheal abdominal shunt. 14 patients with non bloody subdural effusion received subdural abdominal shunt, 12 patients were effective, and 2 patients had hydrocephalus after operation, which were cured by ventriculoperitoneal shunt; 2 patients with hydrocephalus were treated by ventriculoperitoneal shunt, all of which were effective; the other 2 patients received initial drainage of effusion, which was ineffective, and then the effusion disappeared after subdural abdominal shunt.

For patients with subdural effusion, it is necessary to carefully evaluate whether the effusion is bloody and whether it is complicated with hydrocephalus. The patients with hemorrhagic effusion were treated with extra drilling drainage, non bloody effusion with subdural intraperitoneal shunt, and those with hydrocephalus were treated by ventriculoperitoneal shunt operation. Satisfactory results could be obtained by individualized treatment.