[Prolonged epidural hemorrhage].

The authors give an account of four male patients aged 4, 26, 34 and 51 years where they removed on the 4th to 20th day following head injury an epidural haematoma. In the youngest patient the haematoma was in the area of the posterior cranial fossa on the left in another patient on the left in the occipital area, in the third patient concurrent epidural and subdural haemorrhage in the left temporal region was involved as well as contusion of the brain on the same side, in the last patient a large epidural parieto-occipital haematoma on the right side was involved. In the four-year-old boy the haemorrhage developed without fracture of the skull, in the remainder there was fracture of the skull, its course was, however, so inconspicuous that with the exception of one it was found only on operation. Although the clinical symptoms in all patients suggested that a posttraumatic intracranial complication is involved, CT helped to establish the correct diagnosis. All four patients are alive, three without an obvious neurological deficit, one suffers from mild hemiparesis.