Posttraumatic intraventricular haemorrhages.

Of a series of 350 patients studied for blunt head trauma by CT scan 10 were found to have an intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH); in 8 cases we could find concomitant CT abnormalities as well as intracerebral contusion or haemorrhage, and in two cases no other CT abnormality was noted. CT scan represents the first reliable and non-surgical tool for identifying this process. Two possible mechanisms that govern the formation of an IVH are postulated: a) an erosion of the ventricular wall by an intracerebral haemorrhage; b) the rupture of subependymal veins deformed by the negative pressure following dilatation of the ventricular wall. The prognosis in our cases is severe.