Emergency #36

47-year-old female:

– Found EMV 3 after assault

What do you see?

Click here to see the answer

– Diagnosis: Diffuse subdural hematomas of multiple ages (convexities, parafalcine, tentorium) But more important:

Diffuse swelling of gyri and edema with effacement of the CSF-containing spaces
– Diffuse loss of normal grey-white differentiation
– Decreased bilateral basal ganglia attenuation

– = Sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI) indicating hypoxic-ischemic injury, with poor prognostic outcome. Patient died several hours later

– Note: We do not see here the reversal sign (reversal of the normal CT attenuation of grey and white matter) or white cerebellum sign (diffuse oedema and hypoattenuation of the cerebral hemispheres with sparing of the cerebellum and brainstem, resulting in apparent high attenuation of the cerebellum and brainstem relative to the cerebral hemispheres)

One thought on “Emergency #36

Leave a Reply