Usefulness of exploratory burr holes in the management of severe head injury.

ABSTRACT

The authors performed burr hole exploration for the diagnosis of intracranial haematomas in 110 consecutive patients with severe head injury. Burr hole revealed extra-axial mass lesions in 61 patients and 49 patients had negative exploration. Post-mortem study showed that only a very few clots were missed by routine burr holes. The study indicated that diagnostic burr hole exploration was a sensitive method for detecting extracerebral mass lesions in centres where CT scanning facilities were not available.