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Contusion vs. Hematoma

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As I mentioned previously,

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I sometimes will use the term contusion and parenchymal

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hematoma interchangeably.

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However, most people will think of a contusion

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as a brain bruise,

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which is a little bit more diffuse and less well defined,

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versus a parenchymal hematoma,

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which is sort of more of a consolidated area of all

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the hemorrhages that can occur from contusion.

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Both contusions and parenchymal hematomas can occur in the

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coup area of the direct trauma or the contrecoup.

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from the brain motion. And in fact,

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contusions occur more commonly with contrecoup and

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parenchymal hematomas generally occur

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more commonly with contrecoup.

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If one sees an initial CT scan that is normal

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or has mere subarachnoid hemorrhage,

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and then over the course of the follow up,

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within the first 24 hours,

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a parenchymal hematoma develops.

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That delayed intraparenchymal hematoma generally has a

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worse prognosis than if the patient presents initially

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with the intraparenchymal hematoma because it implies

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a more of a diffuse process going on in the brain.

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Let's look at a few slides of cortical contusions

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and contrecoup parenchymal hematomas.

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So, here we have a patient on CT scan where one has an

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initial evaluation, where there's just some faint blood

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products that are seen in the right parietal region.

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However, this patient also has a larger,

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more consolidated collection of blood.

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So this area I would use the term contusion,

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whereas in the further inferior region, one sees a better

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defined, more dense collection of hemorrhage.

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And for this,

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I would use the term hematoma or parenchymal

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hematoma or intraparenchymal hematoma or IPH.

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Again, more of the bruise versus the parenchymal hematoma.

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This is another example of a patient who has a lesion

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along the inferior aspect of the

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anterior cranial fossa floor.

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So, one notes that there is a lower density area here in

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the left anterior cranial fossa region of the inferior

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frontal lobe and it gets much larger as

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one proceeds further superiorly.

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You'll notice that there are some areas that are

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hyperdense representing blood products.

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So this, again, would be something that we would refer to

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more as a contusion because it's not as dense and

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well consolidated as a parenchymal hematoma.

Report

Description

Faculty

David M Yousem, MD, MBA

Professor of Radiology, Vice Chairman and Associate Dean

Johns Hopkins University

Tags

Vascular

Trauma

Neuroradiology

Emergency

CT

Brain

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