CT Evaluation in Patients with Intraventricular Hemorrhage

Choi, Soon Kwan; Bae, Hack Gun; Lee, In Soo

Abstract

Ninety-three patients who had evidence of intraventricular hemorrhage(IVH) were reviewed. Primary and secondary IVH could be well distinguished by computerized tomographic(CT) brain scan. 11 patients had primary pure IVH and remaining 82 patients were secondary IVH from mainly hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. Four patients died and 7 survived in the pure IVH. Three of the 4 who died were aneurysmal rupture. Remaining one was unknown etiology. In CT scan hemorrhage was most frequently found in the occipital horns according to the supine position of the patient during the examination and least found in the temporal horns probably due to narrow crescentic shape. In the secondary IVH the distribution of the blood within the lateral ventricle was mainly ipslateral to the intracerebral hematoma. The point of penetration of the intracerebral hematoma into the lateral ventricle was the posterior body in the basal ganglia or thalamic hemorrhage, the frontal horn in the aneurysmal rupture and the trigone in the arteriovenous malformation. Although the level of consciousness on admission related to the size and location of primary intracerebral hemorrhage or IVH, the ventricular dilatation itself also seemed to contribute to the consciousness state. The degree of temporal horn dilatation correlated more with the clinical grade than the frontal horn dilatation.