Epidural hematomas.

A consecutive unselected series of 66 patients operated on for epidural hematoma between 1974 and 1981 is presented. Several parameters (age, sex, etc.) are analyzed and compared with those of the literature. The outcome is referred and discussed. The mortality rate was 18%. These were the 5 factors that most influence the outcome: (1) patient's age; (2) rate of development of the hematoma; (3) associated brain lesions; (4) neurological status at the time of surgery; (5) interval between injury and surgery. The introduction of Computed Tomography (CT) in neurotraumatological practice, has been followed by improvement of the results also in epidural hematomas.