Posttraumatic cerebral infarction in patients with moderate or severe head trauma.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the frequency, types, and location of posttraumatic cerebral infarction, to assess if secondary cerebral insults were associated with cerebral infarction, and to determine if cerebral infarction affected patients' outcome.
METHODS: We based diagnosis of cerebral infarction on review of brain CT scans. We assessed frequency of secondary cerebral insults, including intracranial hypertension, cerebral hypoperfusion, systolic hypo- and hypertension, arterial blood oxygen desaturation, hypocapnia, and hyperthermia, using clinical charts. We used the Glasgow Outcome Scale to evaluate outcome at 6 months after trauma.
RESULTS: Of the 89 patients included, a total of 28 cerebral infarctions were found in 17 cases (19.1%). Infarctions were territorial in 23 (82.1%) and watershed in 5 (17.9%) cases. Territorial infarctions were localized to the middle cerebral artery (n = 9, 32.1%), lenticulostriate arteries (n = 6, 21.4%), posterior cerebral artery (n = 3, 10.7%), anterior cerebral artery (n = 3, 10.7%), thalamoperforating arteries (n = 1, 3.6%), and basilar artery (n = 1, 3.6%) territories. Watershed infarctions were in the boundary (n = 4, 14.3%) and terminal (n = 1, 3.6%) zones. Intracranial hypertension was the only independent variable predicting cerebral infarction (odds ratio [OR] 13.3; 95% CI 2.8 to 62.6). At 6 months after trauma, there was a lower proportion of patients with good outcome among patients with cerebral infarction vs patients without (23.5 and 61.1%; p = 0.005). Cerebral infarction was the only independent predictor of 6-month outcome (OR of good outcome 0.19, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.66).
CONCLUSIONS: The risk of developing posttraumatic cerebral infarction may be higher in patients with intracranial hypertension than in those without. Patients with posttraumatic cerebral infarction may be at increased risk of residual disability.