Computed Tomography Findings in Patients with Mild Head Trauma.

Background/objective: to determine the frequency of computed tomography (ct) findings in patients with mild head trauma. patients and methods: in this cross-sectional study conducted between september 2005 and april 2006, 708 patients with mild head trauma as defined by a glasgow coma score (gcs) of 13–15, were underwent standard clinical examination and cranial ct. results: the mean±sd age of our patients was 26.8±19.03 years (range: 1 month to 89 years). 489 (68.9%) patients were male and 219 (30.8%) were female. gsc was 13 in 1%, 14 in 4.6% and 15 in 94.4% of patients. the most common mechanism of trauma was car accident and falling down, each of which happened for 132 patients (18.6%). the most common findings on ct were subgaleal hematomas in 213(30%) and intracranial lesions were seen in 41 patients(5.8%) ;among them 37 were male. among intracranial lesions,the most common finding was epidural hematoma in 18 patients followed by hemorrhagic contusion in 13 patients. intracranial lesions were observed in 28.6% of patients with gcs of 13; in 15.2% with gcs of 14 and in 5.1% with gcs of 15 (p=0.002). conclusion: many of patients with gcs equal to 15 after head trauma have considerable intracraniallesions and minor focal neurologic signs revealed by careful physical examination could be a good marker of these lesions.