Radiolucent hair accessories causing depressed skull fracture following blunt cranial trauma

Pediatric neurosurgeons frequently care for children with traumatic scalp and skull injury. Foreign objects are often observed on imaging and may influence the clinician's decision-making process. The authors report on 2 cases of poorly visualized hair beads that had become embedded into the skull during blunt trauma. In both cases, skull radiography and CT scanning demonstrated depressed, comminuted fractures with poorly demonstrated spherical radiolucencies in the overlying scalp. The nature of these objects was initially unclear, and they could have represented air that entered the scalp during trauma. In one case, scalp inspection demonstrated no evidence of the bead. In the other case, a second bead was observed at the site of scalp laceration. In both cases, the beads were surgically removed, the fractures were elevated, and the patients recovered uneventfully. Radiolucent fashion accessories, such as hair beads, may be difficult to appreciate on clinical examination and may masquerade as clinically insignificant air following cranial trauma. If they are not removed, these foreign bodies may pose the risk of an infection. Pediatric neurosurgeons should consider hair accessories in the differential diagnosis of foreign bodies that may produce skull fracture following blunt trauma.