Abstract
Trauma is the leading cause of death in all age groups, and head trauma is the cause of death in more than 50% of cases. Head injury reduces the level of physical and mental health of a community, ultimately increasing the socioeconomic burden. In our resource limited country, skull x ray was the main mode of investigating head trauma until recently when computerized tomography (CT) scans became the modality of choice in the initial work up of patients. In this study, we sought to document the various posttraumatic CT scan findings following head injury in a tertiary hospital in Lagos and determine the sociodemographic and radiological characteristics of such patients. This was a descriptive, prospective, cross-sectional study of the CT scan findings of 400 cases with acute head trauma, from June 2010 to October 2011. The mean age of the participants was 32.7±18.2 years with a male to female ratio of 2.5:1. Majority, 65.5% of the study subjects had positive CT findings while the remaining, 34.5% had normal CT findings. Road traffic accident (RTA) was found to be the most common cause of head injury, occurring in 69% cases, especially in the 21 to 30 years age group. Cerebral contusions, 35.5% and skull fractures, 34.3% were the most common lesions found while foreign body, 1.5% were the least. This study confirmed the versatility of CT scan in detecting both intracranial and extra cranial lesions in patients with head injury from RTA, which is the most common cause, while the most frequent lesion was cerebral contusion. Key words: Computerized tomography scan, head trauma, Lagos.
Highlights
Trauma is a preventable epidemic neglected by many governments, especially in developing countries (Adeolu et al, 2005)
The following information were retrieved from the case notes, request cards or directly from the patient at the time of initial visit: age, gender, mode of injury, time of injury, clinical indication and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS)
The third, fourth and fifth decade groups consist of students and working class individuals, who spend most of their time in outdoor activities outside of their homes, making them more prone to accidents
Summary
Trauma is a preventable epidemic neglected by many governments, especially in developing countries (Adeolu et al, 2005). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is playing an increasingly important role in the evaluation of head trauma (Wasenko and Hochauser, 2003). It has proved more sensitive than CT in the detection of non hemorrhagic contusions, diffuse axonal injuries and subdural haematomas, but it is equivalent to CT in the depiction of hemorrhagic contusions (Wasenko and Hochauser, 2003). This study was intended to elicit the age, sex, social, radiological characteristics of patients present with head injuries at our center and to identify the relationship between the biophysical data and the other characteristics, and etiologic factors of head injury
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
