Imaging of Head Trauma: Pearls and Pitfalls

Aniwat Sriyook; Rajiv Gupta

doi:10.1016/j.rcl.2023.01.008

Imaging of Head Trauma: Pearls and Pitfalls

Radiol Clin North Am. 2023 May;61(3):535-549. doi: 10.1016/j.rcl.2023.01.008. Epub 2023 Feb 19.

Authors

Aniwat Sriyook¹, Rajiv Gupta²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, The Thai Red Cross Society, and Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand; Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Electronic address: aniwat.s@chula.ac.th.
² Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

PMID: 36931768
DOI: 10.1016/j.rcl.2023.01.008

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality and significantly impacts the patients' quality of life and socioeconomic status. It can be classified into primary and secondary injuries. Primary injury occurs at the time of the initial head trauma, such as skull fracture, extra-axial hemorrhage, brain contusion, and diffuse axonal injury. Secondary injury develops later as complications such as diffuse cerebral edema, brain herniation, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This article describes the indication for imaging, imaging modalities, recommended imaging protocols, and imaging findings of primary and secondary injuries, including pitfalls of each pathology.

Keywords: Brain contusion; Chronic traumatic encephalopathy; Diffuse axonal injury; Head trauma; Intracranial hemorrhage; Skull fracture; Traumatic brain injury.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Brain Injuries, Traumatic*
Craniocerebral Trauma* / complications
Craniocerebral Trauma* / diagnostic imaging
Diagnostic Imaging
Humans
Quality of Life
Skull Fractures* / complications