2013 Volume 36 Issue 2 Pages 144-148
Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics of intracerebellar contusions (ICC), we retrospectively analyzed our own cases of this traumatic brain injury.
Materials & Methods: From January 2004 to November 2012 we experienced 6 cases with ICC at our institution. Frequency, patient's age, gender, the cause of injury, absence or presence of skull fracture, co-existing lesions, treatment and outcomes were reviewed.
Results: During the same period described above we treated 391 patients with acute head trauma, thus frequency of ICC accounted for 1.5%. The patient’s ages ranged from 18 to 84 years with a mean age of 59.5 years. All patients but one included in the study were women. The cause of injury was traffic accidents in 4 patients, fall in 2. In each instance the patient had received a direct blow on the back of his ⁄ her head from coup injury. Skull fractures and co-existing supratentorial lesions were detected in all cases on CT scan, namely cerebral contusions in 5, acute subdural hematoma in 1, corpus callosum injury in 1. Three patients were managed conservatively and other 3 patients were managed surgically. In the surgically treated patients suboccipital craniectomies were performed in 2 patients and bowth supratentorial and suboccipital craniectomies were performed in 1. Outcomes at discharge were moderately disabled in 5 and dead in 1.
Conclusions: Due to its rarity there has been limited experience in treating ICC at a single institution. Based on our series of 6 cases and review of the literature the clinical characteristics of this rare traumatic brain injury were presented.
