Cerebral ischemia: a frequent complication of large traumatic epidural hematoma in infants.

OBJECTIVE: Epidural hematoma (EDH) has rarely been studied specifically in infants. The objective of this study was to investigate the outcomes of patients aged < 18 months (infants) with EDH. METHODS: The authors conducted a single-center retrospective study of 48 infants aged less than 18 months who underwent an operation for a supratentorial EDH in the last decade. Clinical, radiological, and biological variables were used in a statistical analysis to identify factors predictive of radiological and clinical outcome. RESULTS: Forty-seven patients were included in the final analysis. Seventeen children (36%) had cerebral ischemia on postoperative imaging, either due to stroke (cerebral herniation) or by local compression. Factors associated with ischemia after multivariate logistic regression were the presence of an initial neurological deficit (76% vs 27%, p = 0.03), low platelet count (mean 192 vs 267 per mm3, p = 0.01), low fibrinogen level (mean 1.4 vs 2.2 g/L, p = 0.04) and long intubation time (mean 65.7 vs 10.1 hours, p = 0.03). Cerebral ischemia on MRI was predictive of a poor clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Infants with EDH have a low mortality rate but a high risk of cerebral ischemia, along with long-term neurological sequelae.