Concomitant cranial and lumbar subdural hematomas

Abstract

A 24-year-old woman presented with concomitant spinal and bilateral intracranial subdural hematomas (SDHs) after hitting her head and lower back in a fall while snowboarding. She developed lower back pain and posture headache. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed bilateral intracranial SDHs and spinal SDH. Her symptoms improved and all hematomas resolved gradually without treatment, and completely disappeared by 5 months after the accident. Simultaneous intracranial SDH and spinal SDH have been reported in only 18 patients, including ours, of whom 6 had suffered trauma. The mechanism of concomitant SDHs has not been clarified, but migration of the hematoma from the intracranial to spinal sites may be an important mechanism. In our patient, low cerebrospinal fluid pressure syndrome and double trauma may also have been involved.