Traumatic epidural haematoma of the posterior fossa in childhood: 16 new cases and a review of the literature.

A series of 16 children (nine males, seven females) with traumatic epidural haematoma of the posterior fossa (TEHPF) is presented. All patients had a history of mild to moderate trauma to the occiput. The causes were falls in 15 and traffic accident in one case. Four of the 16 cases had depressed fractures of the occipital bone. Surgical intervention was performed in all cases. In 14 patients the outcome was good, one patient had moderate disability and one died. Our study revealed that early diagnosis and urgent surgical intervention may give the patient a chance of total recovery and craniotomy with haematoma evacuation is an appropriate surgical technique as in the case of supratentorial extradural hematoma.