Cerebral infarction in the caudate nucleus associated with acute epidural hematoma and diffuse brain injury in a child after severe head injury.

CASE REPORT: A 6-year-old boy was admitted to our hospital 20 min after receiving a direct impact to his head in an automobile accident. He was semi-comatose on admission and computed tomography showed acute epidural hematoma in the right supratentorial region. Three hours later, his consciousness deteriorated due to the enlargement of the hematoma. Surgical removal of hematoma relieved his consciousness disturbance. Post-operative magnetic resonance imaging revealed spotty high-intensity lesions in the corpus callosum on T2-weighted images, and a solitary high-intensity lesion in the left caudate nucleus extending to the medial globus pallidum on T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted images. Magnetic resonance angiography showed no abnormality in the main arteries. These results suggested cerebral infarction in the vascular territory supplied by the recurrent artery of Heubner in association with diffuse brain injury. Post-operative course was uneventful and he was discharged without neurological deficit.

CONCLUSIONS: Post-traumatic cerebral infarction in the caudate nucleus is extremely rare, and its association with diffuse brain injury and epidural hematoma is apparently unique.