Asymptomatic Intracranial Foreign Body: An Incidental Finding on Radiography.

INTRODUCTION: Intracranial needles are rare entities. Intracranial foreign bodies due to non-missile intracranial penetrations are one of the most rarely encountered situations in neurosurgery. Sewing needles are among the more unusual foreign bodies that may be found in the brain. Although uncommon, foreign body cases are important and interesting. Foreign bodies enter the body through trauma or iatrogenic injuries. Needles are mostly inserted through fontanelles, cranial sutures, and more rarely through the orbits in infancy for the purpose of killing unwanted babies. CASE PRESENTATION: This article presents a case of intracranial foreign body found upon radiography. A 24-year-old female, who two days prior to presentation suffered only once from dizziness, and was otherwise healthy. CONCLUSIONS: Because this incident may have occurred during the patient's neonatal period, it may be a case of child abuse. In spite of the very limited number of cases in the literature, having a stepmother, a stepfather, or a babysitter, being the youngest child, or having family members who suffer from psychiatric disorders, (especially if these relatives are responsible for child care), living in a society that allows homicide of children born from extramarital relationships, and being female have been suggested as possible risk factors.

Battered Child Syndrome; a Case Study.

One of the important and usual missed causes of pediatric traumas is child abuse. This ominous phenomenon, which can be presented physically, psychologically, sexually, and emotionally has grown significantly in recent years. Many children are not diagnosed in the early stages of evaluation. Battered Child Syndrome is used to describe the clinical condition of the child serious physical abuse by parents or caregivers. Medical staff should always keep the syndrome in their mind for those brought to the emergency department with trauma. In this report, we described a patient complained of dysphagia following a falling from a height and multiple epidural hematomas and final diagnosis of battered child syndrome.

Effects of citicoline on level of consciousness, serum level of fetuin-A and matrix Gla-protein (MGP) in trauma patients with diffuse axonal injury (DAI) and GCS≤8.

BACKGROUND: Citicoline, a neuroprotective drug, has been suggested to improve level of consciousness, mitigating secondary to brain damage and ectopic vascular calcification, following post-traumatic neurogenesis and angiogenesis, inducing calcification modulators, like fetuin-A and matrix Gla-protein (MGP). This study aimed to investigate effects of citicoline on levels of consciousness, serum levels of fetuin-A and MGP in patients with severe traumatic brain injury. METHODS: This double blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted on patients with diagnosis of diffuse axonal injury (DAI) and GCS≤8. The cases were treated with citicoline (500 mg every 6 hours) intravenously for fifteen days. Daily GCS assessment and intermittent blood sampling were done for both cases and controls. RESULTS: Fifty-eight patients were included in the study and during the study period, mean GCS levels improved in both groups; however, the difference was inconsiderable (p>0.05). Serum levels of fetuin-A, a negative phase reactant, increased in the group treated with citicoline (p=0.012), while these changes were insignificant for the controls (p=0.455). Serum levels of MGP, a calcification inhibitor, increased in the cases (p=0.046). The alterations were inconsequential in the control group (p=0.405). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest neutral effects of citicoline on level of consciousness and GCS. Through increasing levels of fetuin-A and MGP, citicoline may have protective effects against inflammatory damage and vascular calcification secondary to head trauma.