Reinink H, Jüttler E, Hacke W, et al. - Researchers here compared the treatment outcomes, in terms of the risk of death and chance of favorable outcomes, in correlation with surgical decompression vs medical care for space-occupying hemispheric infarction. In addition, they determined how patient features modify this association. They conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data from 488 individuals from seven randomized clinical trials from six countries. Findings suggest an increase in the chance of a favorable outcome at 1 year in correlation with surgical decompression, without statistically significant heterogeneity between subgroups based on age, gender, aphasia, stroke severity, time to randomization, and involvement of additional vascular territories.