Sixty-nine severely head-injured patients treated by general surgeons over a 28 month period with admission Glasgow Coma Scale motor scores of 3 to 8 were reviewed retrospectively. Fifty-one patients were comatose on admission with periods from injury to admission exceeding 4 h in 34 patients who were referred from peripheral hospitals. Forty patients with acute intracranial bleeding underwent emergency decompressive surgery with 13 good recoveries and 18 deaths; good recoveries were observed in 11 of 20 patients with extradural haemorrhages, one out of eight patients with subdural haemorrhages, and one of 12 patients with intracerebral and/or combined haemorrhages. Twenty-nine patients with no evidence of acute mass lesions were treated medically with sedation, mechanical ventilation and mannitol infusion for cerebral decompression with seven good recoveries and 16 deaths. There were 15 good outcomes in 40 patients with admission motor scores of 6, 7 or 8 and five good outcomes in 29 patients with scores of 3, 4 or 5. A good outcome of 29% in the study may be improved by (i) better neurosurgical training of surgical and nursing staff; (ii) provision of technologically advanced diagnostic and treatment modalities; (iii) an efficient referral system; and (iv) provision of effective long-term rehabilitation.
Matched MeSH terms: Brain Edema/prevention & control
Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is an inherited metabolic disorder characterised by a severe, usually lethal, neonatal course unless dietary intake of branched chain amino acids is restricted. We describe a patient with MSUD who had computed tomography (CT) changes of diffuse white matter hypodensity, particularly in the deep white cerebellar matter, brain stem, cerebral peduncles, thalamus and posterior limb of the internal capsule. With dietary treatment, there was neurological improvement with simultaneous disappearance of the oedema. These CT changes are typical of MSUD, hence are relevant findings in the neuroradiologic differential diagnosis of a possible metabolic disorder.
Matched MeSH terms: Brain Edema/prevention & control