Report of Nineteen Cerebral Vein Thrombosis Referrals to an Emergency Departmenta Case Series and Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Risk factors, diagnosis, treatment and outcome of patients with cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) have always been challenging. Objectives: The present study aimed to report on the characteristics of CVT in the patients referring to the emergency unit of a teaching hospital to review and add to the current knowledge on this topic. Patients and Methods: This was a retrospective cross sectional study, which consisted of a series of 19 patients admitted to the emergency department during one year with the diagnosis of CVT. The required data were extracted from existing reports in the case files via manualsearching. All patients were re-evaluated prospectively with the goal of outcome assessment. Results: This study included 19 patients with CVT. Mean age of the cases was 38.7 ± 8.8 years (range 22 to 62 years) and they were predominantly women (84.2%). The most common chief complaint at presentation was headaches, observed in 15 (78.9%) of the patients either solely or accompanied with other symptoms. Use of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) was reported in more than half of the cases. The outcome was favorable in 18 (94.7%) of the cases and only one patient, despite appropriate five months of remedial measures, still suffered from visual disturbance. Conclusions: Although many risk factors for CVT have been identified thus far, it seems that there are different patterns of frequency among ethnic groups. Thus, an inter racial comparison study is still needed. Likewise, with attention to the lack of proper studies and strong evidence regarding treatment options, conducting a multicenter prolonged study with a large sample size is apparently required.