Acute epidural hematoma caused by contrecoup injury]

We report a rare case of the acute epidural hematoma caused by contrecoup injury. A 59-year-old woman came to our hospital on foot because of her head injury. She slipped on a stone and hit her occiput against the concrete floor without loss of consciousness. On admission she was alert and complained of dizziness and nausea without neurological deficits. She had a subcutaneous hematoma in the occiput. There was no Battle's sign nor cerebrospinal fluid leakage. Skull film revealed a linear fracture of the occipital bone. Computed Tomography(CT) of the brain showed the acute epidural hematoma at the left frontal region. She was treated conservatively and discharged 19 days after injury without neurological deficits. The mechanism of this lesion is speculated as follows: the deformation of the skull and the negative pressure produced in the frontal region with the occipital injury stripped the dura mater from the calvarium, which lead to the rupture and hemorrhage of the small interposed vessels resulting in the epidural hematoma.