Understanding temporal bone fractures

The temporal bone is the most complex bone in the human body and a tremendous force is required to fracture the temporal bone. Temporal bone fractures secondary to blunt trauma typically occur along structurally weakened points and can injure many vital structures, including the cochlear and vestibular end organs and the facial nerve, carotid artery, and jugular vein either alone or in combination. With the advent of advanced imaging techniques there has been better understanding of the temporal bone fractures. One should remember that temporal bone fractures are one of the serious conditions after head injury and can be associated with devastating complication if not identified and managed properly

Intracranial pressure monitoring: concepts in evaluation and measurement

Intracranial pressure [ICP] measurement is an extremely important part of the neurosurgical armamentarium. The raised ICP the is not only the commonest cause of death in neurosurgical patients, it is extremely common in patients suffering from head injury. The effective treatment of raise ICP has been shown to decrease mortality. Obviously, an understanding of the principles of ICP measurement is an important prerequisite consideration to the disturbances of brain function that follow head injury. ICP monitoring has been used in subarachnoid hemorrhage, hydrocephalus, brain tumors, infarctions, non traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage, prognostication and treatment, but the most prominent use is in the field of head trauma. Since the preponderance of available literature deals with its use in trauma, the greater part of this review will inevitably deal with head injury