Study on the factors relative to traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage

Objective To study the factors relative to traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (tSAH) in patients with acute craniocerebral injury. Methods Two hundued and twenty-four patients with acute craniocerebral injury treated in our hospital from January to December of 2002 were divided into the tSAH and no tSAH groups according to whether patients suffered from tSAH or not on admition. The differences in the age, sex, cause of injury, brain injury type, GCS, prognosis of the patients of the two groups were compared and analysed. Results Ninty-six cases with acute head injury had tSAH(42.9%). The incidence of tSAH was higher in old patients than that of young people. Its incidence was 24.2% (8/33)in patients younger than 20 years old and 77.8% (14/18)in the patients older than 60 years old. The road accident and falling from the high were common cause of tSAH. The tSAH often accompanied with contusion of brain and sub-dural hematoma (48.7% and 42.9% respectively). The prognosis was worse in the patients with severe brain injury accompanied with tSAH. Conclusion The tSAH frequently occurs in the patients with traumatic brain injury. The severer the brain injury is, the higher the incidence of tSAH and the worse the prognosis is.