Sonia X. James1, Vinod Jakob2, Raghu3
BACKGROUND
Head injury is an injury to scalp, skull and/or contents of skull. Injury to scalp maybe in the form of abrasion, contusion or laceration. Common types of skull fractures are simple linear fracture, depressed, base of skull fracture and orbital/blow out fracture. CT scan has been the investigation of choice in head injury cases. Simple linear fracture of skull cases usually require CT scanning. Base of skull fractures are visible in bone window axial CT scans. Cerebral contusions in CT scan appear as small area of haemorrhage in cerebral parenchyma. Intracerebral haematomas appear as hyperdense lesions on CT with associated mass effect and midline shift. Extradural haematomas appear convex in shape on CT and do not expand past suture lines. Subdural haematomas in CT classically appear crescent shaped. Acute bleed are hyperdense whereas chronic bleed can be isodense. A sincere effort has been put in this study to understand the epidemiology and evaluation of head injury following RTA. This study is intended to help the fellow practicing radiological fraternity.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty three cases were taken up for the study and evaluated by the CT scan of head. Ten axial sections from the base of skull were taken and evaluated. The information collected include age, sex, occupation, alcohol consumption, type of vehicle involved, clinical presentation, CT findings.
RESULTS
Male sex had the highest incidence of head injury, which accounted for thirty four cases. The age group of twenty one to forty years accounted for highest number of cases in this study, which accounted to twenty four cases. Based on the occupation of the victim, the labourers suffered maximum number of head injuries in RTA, which accounted for twelve admissions. In this study, twenty one percent of the victims had consumed alcohol, which amounted to nine in number. Based on the type of vehicle involved two wheelers amounted to eighteen cases. Based on clinical presentation of the victim following RTA, thirty three cases presented with headache. The CT findings of the cases studied showed skull fractures in nineteen cases.
CONCLUSION
In this study, it was noted that incidence of head injuries following RTA was more in the age group of twenty one to forty years. It was also noted that male sex outweighed the female sex.
