Abstract
During recent 12 years, 16 children with severe head injuries were admitted to our clinic. On admission deep coma, unequality of pupillary size, and decerebrate rigidity were seen in all cases. In these cases, mortality and restitution were studied and compared with those of the adult cases with severe head injuries. Finally, the influences of severe head injuries on the further physical and mental development in infancy and childhood were discussed.
Out of 7 cases whose ages were under 3 years, 4 died during the acute stage and the remaining 3 cases showed more or less retardation in both physical and mental development in the 1 to 4 years' observation after head injuries. It was conspicuous that in the cases whose ages were ranging from 4 to 15 years the mortality was quite low and all the survived cases including 4 cases having had prolonged coma over 4 weeks showed markedly good recovery in neurological and mental functions within the relatively early period after the injury and most of them were able to spend fairly normal school lives. On the contrary, it was evident that the surviving adult cases after severe head injuries showed various kinds of neurologic deficits and marked retardation of mental functions, that made the patients difficult to return to the former occupations or normal social lives.
