A Clinical Observation on Craniocerebral Injuries in Infants and Children.

Cho, Maeng Ki; Rhee, Hyun Jae; Kim, Youn; Choi, Kil Soo; Chu, Jeong Wha; Sim, Bo Sung

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society 1972;1(1): 79-86.

Maeng Ki Cho, Hyun Jae Rhee, Youn Kim, Kil Soo Choi, Jeong Wha Chu, Bo Sung Sim

Department of Neurosurgery, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

ABSTRACT

A Clinical analysis was carried out with 340 cases of craniocerebral injuries under 15 years of age, admitted at the Department of Neurosurgery, Seoul National University Hospital in 12 years between Jan., 1987 and Dec., 1969. The matrial was classified four groups according to main lesions, i.e. (1) mild cerebral contusion without skull fractures. (2) moderate or severe cerebral contusion without skull fractures. (3) various types of skull fractures. (4) intracranial hemorrhagic lesions, representing such lesions as follows: a. epidural hematoma, b. subdural hematoma, c. subdural hygroma, d. intracerebral hematoma, e. traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. The results were as follows: 1) The age incidence was greatest in 6 years of age, and 120 cases (32.6% of the total) were included in the age group between four and six. 2) Males outnumbered females by almost 2 to 1. 3) The accident occurred mostly between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. in a day. 4) The craniocerebral injuries were caused by traffic accident(173 cases; 50.8%), falls from heights(108 cases; 31.8%), hit(55 cases; 10.9%), firearms(2 cases; 0.6%) and birth injury (2 cases; 0.6%). 5) Early convulsion was the frequent symptom in the age group between 2 and 7. It was felt that convulsions frequently occurred in epidural and subdural hematoma patients. 6) Forty eight per cent of patients had no deterioration of consciousness on admission examination. 7) Epidural hematoma was the common finding in most of the depressed skull fracture cases. 8) The location of skull fractures in the order of frequency were parietal, temporal, frontal and occipital bone. 9) The epidural hematoma was most common lesion in the 13 to 15 year-old group. 10) The over-all mortality rate was 7.1%. In the surgical group(79 cases) the operative mortality was 11.4%(9 cases): the mortality rate of the subdural hematoma, 25.0%(3 cases); the epidural hematoma, 11.1%(2 cases); the compound depressed fracture, 7.8%(2 cases). In the non-surgical group(261 cases) it was 5.8%. The mortality rate of those who and been unconscious after injuries was significantly high(75.0%). 11) The period of hospitalization was two weeks on an average.