Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2018 Sep:117:353-356.
doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2018.06.135. Epub 2018 Jun 26.

Development of Delayed Posttraumatic Acute Subdural Hematoma

Ilya Rybkin  1 , Michael Kim  2 , Anubhav Amin  2 , Michael Tobias  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Development of Delayed Posttraumatic Acute Subdural Hematoma

Ilya Rybkin et al. World Neurosurg. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Prior studies have shown that most patients with mild traumatic brain injury or negative computed tomography (CT) scans of the head rarely decline or require neurosurgical interventions. One common reason for a delayed decline is an intracranial hemorrhage that presents within 24-48 hours. This is typically seen in elderly patients and/or patients on antiplatelet or anticoagulation agents. We describe a case of a delayed subdural hemorrhage presenting in a young adult not on any antiplatelet or anticoagulation therapy.

Case description: A 19-year-old male presented to the emergency department after being involved in a motor vehicle accident. He had a Glasgow Coma Scale of 15, and an initial CT was negative for any intracranial hemorrhage or pathology, so he was then admitted to the intensive care unit for further care. The patient received 1 dose of aspirin 325 mg the following day for treatment of blunt cerebrovascular injury. Six hours later he reported a severe headache and had an episode of emesis with a subsequent rapid neurologic decline. Repeat CT showed an acute right subdural hematoma, and he underwent an emergent right decompressive hemicraniectomy.

Conclusions: In rare cases, patients with negative initial head CT scans neurologically deteriorate as a result of a delayed acute subdural hematoma. We present an unusual case of a young patient on no medications with no CT findings of an intracranial injury who neurologically declined due to a delayed acute subdural hematoma.

Keywords: Glasgow Coma Scale; Subdural hematoma; Trauma; Traumatic brain injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources