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Background and importance Chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) is a common neurosurgical pathology with a projected increase in prevalence as the elderly population grows. We describe a novel implementation of the IRRAflow irrigating drainage system after burr hole evacuation of bilateral acute-on-chronic subdural hematomas that demonstrates the benefits of this system for common post-operative challenges of these surgeries. Clinical presentation An 83-year-old male presented to the emergency department with 3 weeks of progressive weakness, lethargy, and confusion following an unwitnessed fall. Physical examination was notable for pupillary asymmetry and altered mental status. Computed tomography (CT) of the head showed bilateral acute-on-chronic subdural hematomas. The patient underwent bilateral burr hole evacuation and placement of IRRAflow irrigating drains. Postoperative head CT demonstrated poor brain re-expansion with significant bilateral pneumocephalus. Marked improvement in brain re-expansion occurred with continuous irrigation and drainage, and the patient was discharged on postoperative day (POD) 3 with return to neurological baseline. He followed up on POD13 in stable condition. Conclusion This report described a patient with bilateral subdural hematomas who underwent evacuation and bilateral IRRAflow dual-lumen catheter placement. Significant postoperative pneumocephalus improved rapidly with continuous irrigation and drainage, leading to improved brain re-expansion, hematoma resolution, and excellent neurological recovery.

Pediatric subdural hematomas (SDH) are associated with arachnoid cysts (AC), particularly in the middle cranial fossa (MCF). Operative management of these hemorrhages is a mainstay of treatment. Conservative management may be an option if there is minimal mass effect and the patient is mildly symptomatic. A 14-year-old male presented with right frontal headaches that worsened with activity. He was found to have a large right MCF AC. Scheduled routine outpatient follow-up CT of the head demonstrated bilateral SDH. There was no history of significant head trauma. He was admitted for close observation and his inpatient scans remained stable. Outpatient follow-up imaging over the course of three and a half years demonstrated resolution of SDH and decreased AC size. He denied headaches and continued doing well in school. ACs are a risk factor for the development of SDH in young male patients after minor trauma. Development of intracranial hypotension secondary to AC rupture may have contributed to the development of bilateral SDH in our patient. We demonstrate here that close clinical follow up with serial imaging may be considered a management strategy in these patients.

Background Acute traumatic posterior fossa subdural hematomas are rare lesions in adult. Data on its physiopathology are limited. Timely surgical evacuation is the mainstay of treatment, particularly in selected cases with large volume hematomas compressing the posterior fossa neural elements. The outcome is generally poor and the overall mortality rate is high. The outcome depends on the clinical status of the patient and the timing of surgery. Results We report a case of a 22-years old patient admitted after a severe traumatic brain injury, with a Glasgow coma scale (GCS) of 12. The CT scan showed a right acute subdural hematoma of the cerebellar hemisphere, extending to right the cerebellar pontine angle (CPA) with compression of the posterior fossa neural elements. The patient had surgery within four hours from the trauma with a good recovery. Conclusion Despite the high rate of mortality related to posterior fossa subdural hematomas, our case report and literature analysis highlight the importance of early surgical management in ensuring a better clinical outcome.

Background: A complication after surgical intervention for chronic and subacute subdural hematoma drainage is the recurrence of hematoma, often requiring repeat surgical management. Recurrence rates varied widely across the published series, which may partially be due to different technical strategies used by the surgeons involved in the study. We decided to review our patients with chronic and subacute subdural hematomas that were surgically managed with a burr hole procedure by a single surgeon to compare recurrence rates with the evidence available. Methods: A retrospective review of the medical records was performed on the patients who underwent burr hole surgical intervention to drain a chronic or subacute subdural hematoma between April 1995 and March 2020. All patients were under the care of a single surgeon at an academic institution. Variables analyzed included age, sex, laterality of the hematoma, and recurrence. Results: During the selected timeframe, 610 cases were identified. There were 35 cases of recurrence of the hematoma. The recurrence rate after burr hole drainage was 5.73%. Conclusion: Surgical drainage of chronic and subacute subdural hematoma via burr hole using consistent stepwise management is associated with a relatively low recurrence rate in our single surgeon patient cohort.

Road traffic collisions are a major cause of traumatic brain injury. However, the relationship between road traffic collision dynamics and traumatic brain injury risk for different road users is unknown. We investigated 2065 collisions from Great Britain’s Road Accident In-depth Studies collision database involving 5374 subjects (2013–20). Five hundred and ninety-five subjects sustained a traumatic brain injury (20.2% of 2940 casualties), including 315 moderate–severe and 133 mild–probable injuries. Key pathologies included skull fracture (179, 31.9%), subarachnoid haemorrhage (171, 30.5%), focal brain injury (168, 29.9%) and subdural haematoma (96, 17.1%). These results were extended nationally using >1 000 000 police-reported collision casualties. Extrapolating from the in-depth data we estimate that there are ∼20 000 traumatic brain injury casualties (∼5000 moderate–severe) annually on Great Britain’s roads, accounting for severity differences. Detailed collision investigation allows vehicle collision dynamics to be understood and the change in velocity (known as delta-V) to be estimated for a subset of in-depth collision data. Higher delta-V increased the risk of moderate–severe brain injury for all road users. The four key pathologies were not observed below 8 km/h delta-V for pedestrians/cyclists and 19 km/h delta-V for car occupants (higher delta-V threshold for focal injury in both groups). Traumatic brain injury risk depended on road user type, delta-V and impact direction. Accounting for delta-V, pedestrians/cyclists had a 6-times higher likelihood of moderate–severe brain injury than car occupants. Wearing a cycle helmet during a collision was protective against overall and mild-to-moderate-to-severe brain injury, particularly skull fracture and subdural haematoma. Cycle helmet protection was not due to travel or impact speed differences between helmeted and non-helmeted cyclist groups. We additionally examined the influence of the delta-V direction. Car occupants exposed to a higher lateral delta-V component had a greater prevalence of moderate–severe brain injury, particularly subarachnoid haemorrhage. Multivariate logistic regression models created using total delta-V value and whether lateral delta-V was dominant had the best prediction capabilities (area under the receiver operator curve as high as 0.95). Collision notification systems are routinely fitted in new cars. These record delta-V and automatically alert emergency services to a collision in real-time. These risk relationships could, therefore, inform how routinely fitted automatic collision notification systems alert the emergency services to collisions with a high brain injury risk. Early notification of high-risk scenarios would enable quicker activation of the highest level of emergency service response. Identifying those that require neurosurgical care and ensuring they are transported directly to a centre with neuro-specialist provisions could improve patient outcomes.

Blunt head injury is a major public health and socioeconomic problem causing death and disability particularly among the young population throughout the world. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate if the impact site is correlated with the subdural and epidural hematoma occurrence. A retrospective analysis of consecutive autopsy cases submitted to our Department during a 5-year period was performed. The basic criterion for inclusion in the study was death due to blunt head injury. The recorded variables included the circumstances of death, the existence, and location of head injuries, the primary impact site, age, gender, and toxicological results. A total number of 683 fatal head injury cases was recorded, with most of them being male (74.1%). In 424 cases (62.1%) fatal head injuries were due to road traffic accidents. Fall (from height or on the ground) was the cause of death in 220 (32.2%) cases followed by inflicted impact-assault in 26 (3.8%) cases. A subdural hematoma was found more frequently (26.9%) than epidural (5.0%). Epidural hematomas were found only under the primary impact site, whereas subdural hematomas were coup, contrecoup, or bilateral. An epidural hematoma was found to be almost 5 times more frequent in cases in which a subdural hematoma was present. A higher proportion of subdural, as well as epidural hematoma, was found when the site of impact was the temporal region, followed by the parietal one. Sex did not exert any influence on the probability of subdural and epidural hematoma, whereas for age, a 10% increase in the probability of subdural hematoma occurrence was observed with 10-year age increase.