IMAGING OF HEAD TRAUMA

The role of neuroimaging in the acute setting of head trauma is to dia gnose the extent of intracranial injury and to identify all lesions wh ich require urgent neurosurgical treatment. Computed tomography (CT) r emains the most important diagnostic tool for initial screening of tra uma victims. Although magnetic resonance imaging (MR) has higher sensi tivity to most traumatic lesions than CT,due to the ease and speed of CT,and the fact that sufficient monitoring of critically ill patients during the examination is much easier with CT than with MR, mean that MR is not the imaging modality of choice for the initial diagnostic wo rk-up. Recent MR techniques such as FLAIR or diffusion imaging further improve the sensitivity of MR in head trauma. Conventional angiograph y is currently indicated only for few suspected vascular lesions (e.g. traumatic arterio-venous fistulas, vascular dissections).