Intracranial space-occupying masses in mental hospital patients: necropsy study

During a three year period 1970--1973 necropsies were performed on 200 patients who died in a mental hospital in the Transvaal, South Africa. There was no selection of cases other than availability of consent for postmortem examination. The necropsy rate for this period was 56%. The patients belonged to three racial groups, Black, White, and Coloured, the latter being defined as those of mixed blood. Among these 200 cases, 27 were found at necropsy to have an intracranial space-occupying mass. Mention is made of the literature dealing with the incidence and diagnosis of intracranial space-occupying masses in mental hospital patients, and the incidence of intracranial space-occupying masses in the different racial groups in South Africa.