1994 Volume 3 Issue 6 Pages 494-499
A traumatic intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a neuroradiological finding indicative of a diffuse brain injury and carries a poor prognosis. This study clarifies the clinical implication of a traumatic IVH, especially in patients with a simple traumatic IVH with no other complications. In this study, a diagnosis of traumatic IVH was based on the findings of computerized tomography (CT) performed within 6 hours following the head injury. Excluded from this study were patients whose initial but not follow-up CTS showed an IVH, so as to eliminate a ventricular reflux as an etiology of the intraventricular blood. Also excluded from this study was a patient with an IVH that was due to an intraventricular rupture of an intraparenchymal hematoma. Thus, a total of 5 patients with a simple traumatic IVH were studied. On admission to hospital it was found that the Glasgow Coma Scale score had varied, but although all 5 patients were unconsciousness, 4 patients recovered within 48 hours of their injury. In contrast, the outcome was less favorable for 5 other patients who had a traumatic IVH associated with a primary brainstem injury and/or diffuse brain swelling, and all these latter patients ultimately died or lapsed into a persistent vegetative state. Further, of 7 patients with a traumatic IVH and a focal brain injury, 6 (86%) had a favorable outcome. It thus has been concluded that the outcome of a traumatic IVH depends more upon the severity of the brain injury rather than on the presence or absence of intraventricular hemorrhage.
