Temporal lobe contusion and haematoma

1. Forty-four consecutive patients were operated on for temporal lobe contusion and haematoma. 2. No patient aged over fifty years survived, and heroic measures are not indicated for the older patient. 3. Generalized brain injury accompanying the temporal contusion carried a poor prognosis. 4. Although eight out of the eighteen survivors were totally disabled (mainly by intellectual deterioration), our results show that for the younger patient these lesions should be treated as energetically and as urgently as an epidural or subdural haematoma.