Remote site intracranial haemorrhage: a clinical series of five patients with review of literature

Abstract

Post-operative haematoma is a well-known complication following the intracranial surgery, the surgical site itself being the most frequent and usually results from inadequate haemostasis. Remote site intracranial haemorrhage, that is, haemorrhage occurring at a distant site from the site of craniotomy, is relatively rare and may occasionally cause significant morbidity or even mortality. Authors report a clinical series of five patients who developed remote site haemorrhage following intracranial surgery. Out of 2500 cranial surgeries performed at the authors’ institute in the year 2010, only five patients developed this complication (0.002%). One of these patients developed infratentorial haematoma following supratentorial surgery and one patient developed supratentorial haematoma following infratentorial surgery. All the patients were diagnosed by CT scan in the post-operative period. Four patients were operated and made a good recovery while one patient with cerebellar haematoma rapidly deteriorated and developed brain death and hence was not operated. The pertinent literature is reviewed regarding pathophysiology and management of this rare condition.