Cerebral hemorrhage following heart surgery.

The authors report a study of the problem of intracranial hemorrhage in 16 children following cardiac surgery, four studied clinically, and 12 by postmortem pathological review. Eleven children sustained subdural hematomas of varying sizes, one had a massive extradural clot, and four had intracerebral clots. The pre-, intra-, and postoperative data of these 16 patients are presented, but the specific factors causing the intracranial hemorrhage remain unexplained. The neurological course was similar to that of patients with an intracranial space-occupying lesion, and fundamental neurosurgical management principles for the treatment of this potentially reversible process should be observed.