Table 7.

Functional outcome data in patients with malignant middle cerebral artery infarction: studies with reviews on conservative treatment versus decompressive surgery

Authors	Patients treated with conservative treatment	Patients treated with decompression	Mean age (years)	Dominant/nondominant hemisphere	+ ACA and/or PCA	Mean time to surgery (hours)	Mean time to follow-up (months)	Independent outcome	Mild to moderate disability	Severe disability	Death
Gupta et al., 2004 [123]	-	138	50	20%/80%	32%	59.3	7–21	7%	35%	34%	24%
Morley et al., 2002 [137]	Gives an overview on available data.
	No trial fulfills the criteria of a randomised controlled study design to be included in a meta-analysis.

Functional outcome was classified as described in Table 2. ACA, anterior cerebral artery; PCA, posterior cerebral artery.