[Clinico-scanographic profile of acute encephalic cranial trauma in adults in Kinshasa].

AIMS: To determine the frequency of acute encephalic cranial injuries by CT-Scan and to describe the clinical profile of patients.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

This was a retrospective and multicentric study including patients with encephalic cranial trauma (ECT) hospitalized in Kinshasa from January 2006 to December 2010 who underwent a CT-scan. Injuries were classified as encephalic cranial potentially surgical and non surgical encephalic cranial injuries. The demographic and clinical parameters of each patient have been analyzed.

RESULTS

The average age of patients (n=552) was 37.34 ± 14.51 years with a sex ratio man:woman of 5:1. Traffic injuries were the main cause for injuries. About 68.3% of patients had a GCS ≤ 8. 90% of encephalic cranial potentially surgical were mostly hematoma (64%), subdural hematoma (46%) versus epidural hematoma (12%). Of these patients, only 6.6% had benefitted from a surgical treatment. The non potentially surgical lesions were often associated with potentially surgical lesions and were mostly outclassed by the dome of the skull fracture (43%). The isolated non potentially surgical lesions were predominantly diffuse axonal injury.

CONCLUSION

The majority of patients with encephalic cranial trauma seen on CT-scan in Kinshasa have serious lesions potentially surgical. Men are more affected than women, with the 20-40 years old age bracket being the most represented.