[The phasic nature of the clinical course of traumatic intracranial hematomas]

A complex analysis of 315 cases of verified traumatic intracranial hematomas helped single out clinical phases marking their evolution, viz. compensations, sub-compensation, moderate decompensation, gross decompensation and terminal ones. A relation between the frequency of and sequence in the development of clinical phases of the brain compression by the hematoma and severity of the primary lesion of the brain at the moment of an injury was established. A direct connection between the results of the surgical treatment of intracranial hematomas and the clinical phase in which the patient underwent the operation was ascertained. A proposition is advanced as to an active diagnosing of intracranial hematomas by which is meant elimination of topical and nosological doubts and performance of an effective operation pre-emptive to the onset of a gross clinical decompensation of the injury.