Extradural hematoma: analysis of factors influencing the courses of 161 patients

The clinical and computed tomographic (CT) findings in a series of 161 consecutive patients operated upon for postraumatic extradural hematoma are analyzed. Thirteen (8%) patients had delayed epidural hematoma formation. The overall mortality for the series was 12%, significantly lower than that observed during the prior "angiographic" period at the same unit (30%). Because all but 1 of the deaths occurred among the 66 patients unconscious at the time of operation (27% mortality in this subgroup), the authors sought differential factors between comatose and noncomatose patients at operation. There were no significant differences between these groups in age, sex, mechanism of injury, preoperative course of consciousness (lucid interval or not), or epidural hematoma location and shape. In contrast, significant differences were seen between the two subgroups in trauma-to-operation interval, hematoma volume, CT hematoma density (mixed low-high CT density vs. homogeneous hyperdensity), midline displacement, severity of associated intracranial lesions, and postoperative intracranial pressure (ICP). Patients comatose at operation usually evidenced a more rapid clinical deterioration (a shorter trauma-to-operation interval) and tended to have a large hematoma volume, a higher incidence of mixed CT density clot (hyperacute bleeding), more marked shift of midline structures, more severe associated lesions, and higher postoperative ICP levels.