Summary
The authors have studied a series of 625 children with head injuries. During the past 7 years, these children have been hospitalized in neurosurgery, closely observed and eventually operated on by the same medical team in the same department. Several observations can be made from these results.
The presence of twice as many boys as girls among the patients has been noted. This masculine predominance remains to be explained.
Traffic accidents are responsible for approximately 50% of the admissions. These are always the most serious accidents involving the greatest number of severe neurological disorders, associated extra-cranial traumatic lesions and deaths.
The clinical pictures of benign and severe head traumas are reviewed. The authors emphasize the rarity (4% of the cases) and the bad prognosis of the epidural hematoma; the sub-dural hydroma appears to be an uncommon but very interesting lesion.
The diagnostic and therapeutic problems due to associated extra-cranial traumatic lesions (12% of the cases) have been thoroughly considered.
To evaluate the prognosis as early as possible, several factors have been carefully examined: the fracture which plays no part, the state of consciousness which is decisive, and the presence or absence of initial hemiplegia seizures or decerebrate rigidity. The sequelae are observed in less than 10% of the cases. In one-third of these cases, complex dyskinesia is present; post-traumatic epilepsy does not often appear in the series (3 authentic cases only); prolonged anticonvulsive therapy is of no apparent value.
The results are discussed and compared with those previously published in medical research literature.
Infantile mortality has been stadily diminishing for years in our socalled civilized countries; nevertheless, mortality due to accidents is increasing every year. The greatest percentage of all these accidental deaths is due to head injuries; therefore, many extensive surveys have been devoted to the subject (3, 8, 13, 25, 35, 45).
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Chodkiewicz, J.P., Redondo, A., Merienne, L., Cioloka, C., Terrazas, F. (1975). Pediatric Head Injuries. In: Penzholz, H., Brock, M., Hamer, J. (eds) Brain Hypoxia. Advances in Neurosurgery, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66239-3_55
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66239-3_55
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