Nontraumatic posterior temporal lobe hemorrhage: clinical computed tomographic correlations.

Ten patients with nontraumatic posterior temporal hematomas were analyzed. These hemorrhages were spontaneous (four cases) or hypertensive (six cases). With right posterior temporal hematomas, headache and confusion of sudden onset were the initial common characteristic clinical signs. The absence of prominent lateralizing neurological deficit simulated a diffuse toxic or metabolic encephalopathy. With left-sided hematomas, Wernicke-type aphasia was the initial feature. The 10 hematomas were 1.8 to 2.8 cm in maximal diameter. In these 10 cases, clinical outcome was good, as all patients survived and the hematoma resolved spontaneously.