Swift Spontaneous Regression of a Pediatric Traumatic Acute Subdural Hematoma

Abstract

We report the case of a 4-year-old girl with acute subdural hematoma who presented to the emergency department after an unwitnessed fall of the balcony. The hematoma was hyperdense along the left convexity of 9 mm thickness with a consequent mass effect with obliteration of the adjacent sulci, left lateral ventricle compression and a midline shift of 7 mm. During her stay in the emergency department while waiting for transfer to the children intensive care unit elsewhere she slightly deteriorated neurologically. Repeat CT scan of the brain 4 h after initial presentation remarkably showed that the subdural hematoma had now largely disappeared, with a decrease in volume and density. Consequently, the mass effect diminished with a near normalization of the midline shift.

Keywords

• acute subdural hematoma
• children
• trauma
• operation