OUTCOME OF ACUTE EPIDURAL HAEMATOMA IN A TERTIARY TRAUMA CENTRE *

Epidural haematoma (EDH) is a well‐recognized complication of head injury which may result in severe secondary brain injury, or even death if not treated properly. In the majority of cases, the haematoma arises from injured meningeal vessels.1,2 Primary parenchymal brain insult is often minimal and all patients should in theory be saved if the epidural haematoma is evacuated promptly.3,4 Indeed, EDH is considered by some authorities as one of the most suitable disease entity for verifying the effectiveness of head injury management.5 Until recently, the lack of local data has limited our appraisal of the standard and demand of neurotrauma service in Hong Kong.6,7 We report here the clinical features and outcome of 110 patients with post‐traumatic EDH treated at a local tertiary trauma centre over a period of 5 years.A retrospective analysis was performed on 110 consecutive patients with post‐traumatic EDH admitted between January 1995 and December 1999. The diagnosis of EDH was made on computerized tomography (CT) in all cases and confirmed during operation in surgical cases. Patients with other associated intra‐cranial lesions (e.g. acute subdural haematoma and cerebral contusion) were also included as long as they were not considered to predominate over the EDH. Epidural haematoma which were not related to head trauma (e.g. spontaneous, post‐craniotomy complications) were excluded.