Clinical Course Correlated to the Type of Intracranial Lesion in Severe Head Injury

Among patients categorized as suffering from severe head injury there is a great heterogeneity in both the clinical course and the type of intracranial lesion (Becker et al. 1977, Clifton et al. 1980, Gennarelli et al. 1982, Jennett et al. 1979, Miller et al. 1981) and it is necessary to separate they into meaningful subgroups in order better to analyse the factors influencing outcome. Segregation of cases may be achieved by different criteria and a pathological classification based on the computed tomography (CT) findings, seems to be rational and appropriate (Clifton et al. 1980, Gennarelli et al. 1982). Although post-traumatic intracranial lesions are not always mutually exclusive, by defining a principal lesion in cases with multiple intracranial pathology a practical, simplified subdivision may be built.