Lateral impact in closed head injury: A substantially increased risk for diffuse axonal injury—A preliminary study

SummaryObjectiveAssessment, whether location of impact causing different facial fracture patterns was associated with diffuse axonal injury in patients with severe closed head injury.MethodsRetrospectively all patients referred to the Trauma Unit of the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland between 1996 and 2002 presenting with severe closed head injuries (Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) face of 2–4 and an AIS head and neck of 3–5) were assessed according to the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and the Injury Severity Score (ISS). Facial fracture patterns were classified as resulting from frontal, oblique or lateral impact. All patients had undergone computed tomography. The association between impact location and diffuse axonal injury when correcting for the level of consciousness (using the Glasgow scale) and severity of injury (using the ISS) was calculated with a multivariate regression analysis.ResultsOf 200 screened patients, 61 fulfilled the inclusion criteria for severe closed head injury. The medians (interquartile ranges 25;75) for GCS, AISface AIShead and neck and ISS were 3 (3;13), 2 (2;4), 4 (4;5) and 30 (24;41), respectively. A total of 51% patients had frontal, 26% had an oblique and 23% had lateral trauma. A total of 21% patients developed diffuse axonal injury (DAI) when compared with frontal impact, the likelihood of diffuse axonal injury increased 11.0 fold (1.7–73.0) in patients with a lateral impact.ConclusionsClinicians should be aware of the substantial increase of diffuse axonal injury related to lateral impact in patients with severe closed head injuries.