Acute pulmonary edema following head injury: two case reports.

An acute episode of pulmonary edema may occur in association with head injury. This is due to the elevation of systemic blood pressure, to maintain cerebral circulation in the presence of increasing intracranial pressure (ICP). In these instances, the pulmonary edema arises as a pathophysiologic, neurohemodynamic response to the intracranial disease. This response has been produced experimentally, and 2 case reports described this problem clinically. If such patients with increased ICP could be treated immediately with antihypertensive drugs, pulmonary edema might be prevented and the high mortality rate decreased.