This is a basic article for medical students and other non-radiologists
Intracranial hemorrhage refers to bleeding within the intracranial cavity and is, therefore, a catch-all term which includes parenchymal (intra-axial) hemorrhage and the various types of extra-axial hemorrhage including, subarachnoid, subdural and extradural hemorrhage.
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Reference article
This is a summary article; read more in our article on Intracranial hemorrhage.
Summary
- anatomy
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pathophysiology
- etiology and pathophysiology dependent on the type of hemorrhage
- parenchymal
- trauma
- stroke
- degeneration (amyloid angiopathy)
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subarachnoid
- trauma
- ruptured aneurysm
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subdural
- venous bleed from low-impact trauma
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extradural
- arterial bleed from high-energy trauma and skull fracture
- parenchymal
- etiology and pathophysiology dependent on the type of hemorrhage
Imaging
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role of imaging
- is there any hemorrhage?
- where is it?
- is the cause visible on the scan, e.g. fracture, aneurysm)?
- are there any complications, e.g. mass effect, midline shift?
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radiographic features
- acute hemorrhage is hyperdense (white) on CT
- as the blood ages, the density decreases
- chronic blood approaches the density of CSF
- sizable hemorrhage may cause mass effect and midline shift