Diffuse Brain Swelling in Severely Head Injured Patients

Diffuse brain swelling(bilateral swelling without shift or other lesions ; DBS) after severe head injuy in children is very common event and that DBS in children is thought to be associated with a low mortality, generally compared with adult. In this study, DBS ws compared in 9 Children and 18 adults, selected among 222 cases of severe head injured patients admitted to the Department of Neurosurgery for 4 years from January 1986 toDecember 1989. The results were summarized as follows ; 1) The incidence of DBS in children(39.1%) was about 4 time as high as for adult(9.0%). 2) There was no significant difference of mortality rate in pediatric and adult group showing DBS but there was a significant low mortality rate in pediatric group without showing DBS, in contrast to other studies.

A Study of Chronic Subdural Hematoma with a Particular Reference to Osmolarity Between Serum and Hematoma Fluid

Fourty six patient with chronic subdural hematoma(CSDH) were managed by simple closed drainage between January 1987 and January 1990. The osmolarity and its factors of fluid from CSDH were compared to that of simultaneously drawn venous blood in patients. The results were as follows ; 1) The values of K+ and albumin of the hematoma fluid were significantly higher than that of hematoma fluid(P<0.05). 2) Osmolarities of the hematoma fluid were higher than that of venous blood(P<0.01). 3) Osmolarity, K+ and albumin showed linear relationship between hematoma fluid and venous blood(P<0.01).