Piastra Marco, Pietrini Domenico, Massimi Luca, Caldarelli Massimo, De Luca Daniele, Del Lungo Laura Minguell, De Carolis Maria Pia, Di Rocco Concezio, Conti Giorgio, Zecca Enrico
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Catholic University Medical School, A.Gemelli Hospital, L.go Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy.
J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2009 Dec;4(6):543-6. doi: 10.3171/2009.7.PEDS08223.
The authors report a case of minimal prenatal trauma producing a large subdural hematoma in the fetus, which was diagnosed in utero by MR imaging. The occurrence of such a complication is extremely rare in the absence of significant maternal trauma. Prenatally diagnosed intracranial hemorrhages, particularly those that are subdural in origin, have a poor prognosis in most cases. After birth, brain compression required a complex neurosurgical intervention because simple hematoma evacuation was not possible. The clinical and neurological outcome at 6 months was excellent, as confirmed by the neuroimaging findings.