Delayed Trochlear Nerve Palsy Following Traumatic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Usefulness of High-Resolution Three Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Unusual Course of the Nerve / 대한신경손상학회지

Cranial nerve palsies are relatively common after trauma, but trochlear nerve palsy is relatively uncommon. Although traumatic trochlear nerve palsy is easy to diagnose clinically because of extraocular movement disturbances, radiologic evaluations of this condition are difficult to perform because of the nerve's small size. Here, we report the case of a patient with delayed traumatic trochlear nerve palsy associated with a traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and the related radiological findings, as obtained with high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A 63-year-old woman was brought to the emergency room after a minor head trauma. Neurologic examinations did not reveal any focal neurologic deficits. Brain computed tomography showed a traumatic SAH at the left ambient cistern. The patient complained of vertical diplopia at 3 days post-trauma. Ophthalmologic evaluations revealed trochlear nerve palsy on the left side. High-resolution 3D MRI, performed 20 days post-trauma, revealed continuity of the trochlear nerve and its abutted course by the posterior cerebral artery branch at the brain stem. Chemical irritation due to the SAH and the abutting nerve course were considered causative factors. The trochlear nerve palsy completely resolved during follow-up. This case shows the usefulness of high-resolution 3D MRI for evaluating trochlear nerve palsy.

Traumatic Intracerebral and Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Due to a Ruptured Pseudoaneurysm of Middle Meningeal Artery Accompanied by a Medial Sphenoid Wing Dural Arteriovenous Fistula / 대한신경손상학회지

Traumatic pseudoaneurysms of middle meningeal artery (MMA) and medial sphenoid wing dural arteriovenous fistula (dAVF) are rare. These lesions usually result from traumatic brain injury, and associated with skull fracture. In this paper, the authors report a case of a patient with a ruptured traumatic pseudoaneurysm of MMA and medial sphenoid wing dAVF presented with an intracerebral hemorrhage in the left temporal region and subarachnoid hemorrhage. These lesions were completely obliterated by endovascular treatment, and the patient was recovered without any neurologic deficit. However, 18-day after the procedure, delayed neurologic deficits were developed due to cerebral vasospasm.

Initial Rotterdam CT score may predict prognosis of the patients after unilateral decompression craniectomy for treating severe traumatic brain injury / 中华急诊医学杂志

Objective To identify the factors enhancing the contusive brain hemorrhage following unilateral decompression craniectomy in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI),and to explore the relationship between the initial Rotterdam CT score and clinical outcomes.Methods A prospective study of 291 consecutive patients with TBI admitted from Jan 2008 through Dec 2012 was carried out.Patients treated with unilateral decompression craniectomy were enrolled for study.Patients without preoperative or postoperative cranial CT imaging were excluded.Of them,235 patients were followed up.Gender,age,the causes of injury,preoperative general condition including Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score,pupillary response,laboratory data and the initial CT scans before operation,contusion hematoma size in CT scans following operation and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score were recorded.With t test,x2 test and nonparametric rank sum test,differences in the above listed variables were compared between patients with enlarged hematoma size group and those without change in hematoma size.A Classification And Regression Tree (CART) was used to predict the size of hematoma.Correlation analysis was used to find the relationship between the Rotterdam CT scores and GOS scores.Results The differences in age (t =2.034,P =0.043),first Rotterdam CT score (Z =4.838,P ＜ 0.01),GCS score (Z =4.440,P ＜ 0.01),pupillary response (Z =3.235,P =0.001),the length of time elapsed between the trauma occurred and the decompressive craniectomy (Z =3.874,P ＜ 0.01),glucose level (Z =3.880,P ＜ 0.01) and cerebrum hernia magnitude (Z =2.529,P =0.012) were significant between the patients with hematoma expanded (n =120) and those without change in hematoma size (n =115).The results of the CART indicated that Rotterdam score got from the initial head CT,glucose level and the length of time elapsed between trauma occurred and decompressive craniectomy were strong predictors of the risk for expanded hemorrhagic contusions following decompressive craniectomy.Both age and size of the removed bone-flap also could predict the risk of postoperative expansion of hemorrhagic contusions.The overall predictive accuracy of the CART model was 83.3％.Correlation analysis results indicated that Rotterdam CT score was negatively correlated with GOS (r =-0.333,P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Initial Rotterdam CT scores,glucose level and the length of time between trauma and decompressive craniectomy may predict the risk of contusions expansion following decompressive craniectomy.Rotterdam CT score was negatively correlated with GOS.