Study of Head and Spine Injuries by Non-Contrast Computed Tomography (NCCT) Following Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs)

Background Head injury is injury to scalp, skull and the brain parenchyma. Scalp injury may be in the form of abrasion, contusion or laceration. Scalp lacerations bleed profusely if not controlled, because blood vessels in the dense fibrous layer, superficial to galea aponeurotica remain exposed once this layer is torn. Underlying the lacerations and scalp hematomas there can be skull fractures. Common types of skull fractures are simple linear fracture, depressed fracture, base of skull fracture and orbital blow out fracture. A sincere effort has been put in this study to understand the epidemiology and evaluation of head injury following RTAs. This study is intended to help the practicing radiology fraternity. Methods The study was done in the Department of Radiodiagnosis at The Oxford Medical College Hospital And Research Centre, Bangalore. The study was done from October 2015 to December 2016. Forty three cases were taken up for the study and evaluated by plain CT scan (NCCT scan Non-Contrast CT scan, i. e. CT scan without administration of intravenous contrast agent) of the head. Ten axial sections of the head from the base of skull were taken and evaluated. The information collected includes age, sex, occupation, alcohol consumption, type of vehicle involved, clinical presentation and CT findings. Thirty two cases out of the total had concurrent spinal injuries. Results Male sex had the highest incidence of head injury which accounted for thirty four cases in comparison to females which accounted for only nine cases. Thirty two cases had concurrent spinal injuries. Conclusion In this study it was noted that incidence of head injuries following RTA was more in the age group of twenty one to forty years. It was also noted that male sex out weighed the female sex for head injury following RTA.