Permanent central diabetes insipidus after mild head injury.

ABSTRACT

We report a case of a patient with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) who was diagnosed with permanent central diabetes insipidus (DI). A 21-year-old man was admitted to our outpatient clinic with polyuria and polydipsia 1 week after a mild head injury. He was well, except for these complaints. The initial laboratory workup was consistent with DI. There was no abnormality with other laboratory and hormone values. MRI showed lack of neurohypophyseal hyperintensity with no other abnormal findings. The patient responded well to desmopressin therapy. At the first year of the diagnosis, the patient still needed to use desmopressin treatment as we concluded that DI is permanent. DI is not uncommon after TBI, but it is often seen after severe TBI. We present here an extraordinary case of developing permanent DI after mild TBI with the absence of neurohypophyseal bright spot on MRI with no other abnormal findings.