A Clinical Analysis of Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhages at the Basal Ganglia and Thalamus

The author analyzed 169 cases of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhages at the basal ganglia and thalamus, who had been admitted to Jeonju Presbyterian Medical Center from 1975 to 1979. Intracerebral hematoma was confirmed by angiography and the amount of hematoma was divided as small, medium or large according to the angiographic evidence. Among the 169 cases, 145 cases underwent appropriate medical or surgical treatment. 63 cases were treated conservatively and 82 cases were operated ; 22 cases of frontal approach, 51 cases of temporal approach, and 9 cases of extraventricula diainage of clot. Results obtained are as follows : 1. The common pridiection age group was from the fifth to the seventh decades, which was 90.5% of all cases. The ratio of male to female was about 2 to 1. 2. putaminal hemorrhage was 65.1%, and thalamic hemorrhage was 16.6%. 3. Angiographic evidence of arteriosclerosis was seen in 86.4%. 4. The worse prognostic factors were related to age(over 65), site and size of hematoma, and mental state on admission. 5. With conservative management 49.2% were improved, 6.3% not improved, 44.4% moribund or dead. 6. With surgical treatment 58.5% were improved, 3.7% not improved, 37.8% moribund or dead. 7. Microsurgical temporal approach proved to have the following advantages over frontal approach. (1) Better outcome was found in this approach(64.7% vs 54.4%). (2) The distance to the hematoma was closer in temporal approach, and so total removal of hematoma and complete control of bleeding sources with less surrounding structural damages were possible. 8. Early operation seems to be more effective than delayed operation in the cases of large hematoma with deteriorating neurological signs.

Spontaneous Spinal Epidural Hematoma in the Young: Case Report

There have been few description of spontaneous epidural hematoma of spinal cord in the young. Duration of symptoms in previous cases has varied from hours to days. We recently evacuated a 16-year-old boy with cord compression from an extradural clot, who complained of abdominal pain & diarrhea before becoming spinal epidural hematoma occurred in the young.