[Computerized tomography in sequelae of brain contusions]

Follow-up clinical and computed tomographic (CT) studies were performed in 140 patients with focal brain contusions at the acute stage of brain injury (BI). A total of 133 victims were followed up and the time course of CT changes were examined in the intervening and late BI periods. Despite the favourable natural history of acute BI, mild, moderate, and severe posttraumatic changes were shown to appear as cicatricial-adhesive and atrophic processes, intracerebral cysts, porencephaly, which result in posttraumatic epilepsy, hydrocephalus, etc. The magnitude of diffuse changes rather than focal changes in the area of the prior medullary lesion was found to play the leading role in the victims' disability.