Lesson of the Week: Subarachnoid haemorrhage presenting as head injury

Computed tomography showed a small amount of blood in the anterior interhemispheric fissure. Because of the family history and the unclear circumstances of the fall (no witness, patient unconscious since the event) the possibility of subarachnoid haemorrhage was raised. Three quarters of patients wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ 1995-05, Vol.310 (6988), p.1186-1187
Main Authors: Sakas, Damianos E, Dias, Lal S, Beale, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aneurysms
Consciousness
Fractures
Head injuries
Headaches
Heart attacks
Hemorrhage
Medical imaging
Patients
Radiography
Trauma
Veins & arteries
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Description
Summary:Computed tomography showed a small amount of blood in the anterior interhemispheric fissure. Because of the family history and the unclear circumstances of the fall (no witness, patient unconscious since the event) the possibility of subarachnoid haemorrhage was raised. Three quarters of patients who suffer subarachnoid haemorrhage are in a good neurological state on admission and gradually improve after the first bleed. 2 Thus if neither the spontaneous cerebral haemorrhage nor the head injury have caused an important clinical deficit these patients may recover soon after the haemorrhage and have only headache and retrograde amnesia, with no recollection of the haemorrhage's symptoms before the trauma.
ISSN:0959-8138
1468-5833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.310.6988.1186