Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Clinical Pathology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Pathology
. 1988 Jan;41(1):34–37. doi: 10.1136/jcp.41.1.34

Brain damage in fatal non-missile head injury without high intracranial pressure.

D I Graham 1, A E Lawrence 1, J H Adams 1, D Doyle 1, D R McLellan 1
PMCID: PMC1141332  PMID: 3343378

Abstract

As part of a comprehensive study of brain damage in 635 fatal non-missile head injuries, the type and prevalence of brain damage occurring in the absence of high intracranial pressure were analysed. Of 71 such cases, 53 sustained their injury as a result of a road traffic accident; only 25 experienced a lucid interval. Thirty eight had a fractured skull, a mean total contusion index of 12.9 and diffuse axonal injury in 29: severe to moderate ischaemic damage was present in the cerebral cortex in 25, brain swelling in 13, and acute bacterial meningitis in nine. The prevalence and range of brain damage that may occur in the absence of high intracranial pressure are important to forensic pathologists in the medicolegal interpretation of cases of fatal head injury.

Full text

PDF
37

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Adams H. Letter: The "respirator brain". Arch Neurol. 1976 Aug;33(8):589–590. doi: 10.1001/archneur.1976.00500080067012. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Adams J. H., Brierley J. B., Connor R. C., Treip C. S. The effects of systemic hypotension upon the human brain. Clinical and neuropathological observations in 11 cases. Brain. 1966 Jun;89(2):235–268. doi: 10.1093/brain/89.2.235. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Adams J. H., Doyle D., Graham D. I., Lawrence A. E., McLellan D. R., Gennarelli T. A., Pastuszko M., Sakamoto T. The contusion index: a reappraisal in human and experimental non-missile head injury. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. 1985 Jul-Aug;11(4):299–308. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2990.1985.tb00027.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Adams J. H., Graham D. I., Murray L. S., Scott G. Diffuse axonal injury due to nonmissile head injury in humans: an analysis of 45 cases. Ann Neurol. 1982 Dec;12(6):557–563. doi: 10.1002/ana.410120610. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gallbraith S., Teasdale G. Predicting the need for operation in the patient with an occult traumatic intracranial hematoma. J Neurosurg. 1981 Jul;55(1):75–81. doi: 10.3171/jns.1981.55.1.0075. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Graham D. I., Adams J. H., Doyle D. Ischaemic brain damage in fatal non-missile head injuries. J Neurol Sci. 1978 Dec;39(2-3):213–234. doi: 10.1016/0022-510x(78)90124-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Graham D. I., Lawrence A. E., Adams J. H., Doyle D., McLellan D. R. Brain damage in non-missile head injury secondary to high intracranial pressure. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol. 1987 May-Jun;13(3):209–217. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2990.1987.tb00184.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Macpherson P., Graham D. I. Correlation between angiographic findings and the ischaemia of head injury. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1978 Feb;41(2):122–127. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.41.2.122. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Reilly P. L., Graham D. I., Adams J. H., Jennett B. Patients with head injury who talk and die. Lancet. 1975 Aug 30;2(7931):375–377. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(75)92893-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. STRICH S. J. Diffuse degeneration of the cerebral white matter in severe dementia following head injury. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1956 Aug;19(3):163–185. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.19.3.163. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Sarwar M., McCormick W. F. Decrease in ventricular and sulcal size after death. Radiology. 1978 May;127(2):409–411. doi: 10.1148/127.2.409. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Teasdale E., Cardoso E., Galbraith S., Teasdale G. CT scan in severe diffuse head injury: physiological and clinical correlations. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1984 Jun;47(6):600–603. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.47.6.600. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Zimmerman R. A., Bilaniuk L. T., Genneralli T. Computed tomography of shearing injuries of the cerebral white matter. Radiology. 1978 May;127(2):393–396. doi: 10.1148/127.2.393. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Pathology are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES