[Clinico-morphologic characteristics of brain contusion in patients of various age groups].

Brain contusion in children becomes fatal only when the cerebrocranial trauma is very serious and coarse diffuse lesions occur in the whole brain. Foci of intracerebral hemorrhages are relatively rare in such cases. A special form of affection--diffuse involvement of the brain is often encountered in children and young persons. In patients of the older age groups a fatal outcome may occur not only in a severe but also in a relatively mild trauma; it is due to the trauma itself and also to secondary pathological reactions on the part of the cardiovascular and other systems of the organism. The contusion foci in elderly and old-aged individuals are characterized as a rule by extensive hemorrhages. The younger the patient, the more is the tendency towards manifestation of the regularities characteristic of the child organism, and, in contrast, the older the patient and the more pronounced the signs of premature advanced age, the higher is the frequency of complications and fatal outcomes in relatively mild cerebrocranial trauma.