Significance of computed tomography scans in head injury

Background: In view of the growing population and increased vehicle use, traumatic brain injury is becoming the most common and devastating problem especially in young healthy people. It has occupied second place next to cancer as leading cause of death. In this new era of radiology, computed tomography has become the primary modality of choice in the initial assessment of head injury patients as it is widely available, faster and highly accurate in detecting skull fractures and acute intracranial hemorrhage. Aim: It is to demonstrate the importance of ct scanning in the initial treatment planning, follow up and long term management of patients with acute head injury of varying severity. Patients: A retrospective study has been carried out of 100 cases of acute head trauma with positive CT scanning referred to Narayana medical college and hospital, Nellore, India between 30th April 2012 to 1st May 2013 [1 year retrospective study]. Results: The post traumatic intracranial consequences have been collected, reviewed and analyzed, where in 82% of cases males were involved , and most of the injured people belong to the first three decades of life, the main cause being road traffic accident which is growing in incidence in this 21st century. Most of the cases which were studied showed skull fractures, which indicates that there has been significant trauma and in a single case more than one pathology related to cranium has been seen. The most common post traumatic consequences found in the study of adults are contusions, brain edema and intracerebral hematomas, while other sequelae such as subarachnoid hematomas, subdural hematomas and extradural hematomas are encountered less. Diffuse and focal cerebral edema was being the most common pathology following trauma in children. Conclusion: CT scanning is the primary modality of choice in the diagnostic work up of patients with acute head trauma for identifying the various intracranial consequences following head injury especially within 48 hours which helps in the initial assessment, treatment planning, follow up and long term management of patients.