[A case of acute intracranial epidural hematoma caused by chronic nasal sinusitis]

Abstract

Non-traumatic intracranial acute epidural hematoma(EDH)is rare. It is mostly caused by coagulation disorders, dural metastasis, or vascular malformations of the dura. We report a case of non-traumatic acute EDH caused by chronic nasal sinusitis and review the literature comprising 10 cases of acute EDH caused by chronic nasal sinusitis. A 16-year-old boy visited our outpatient clinic with a 2-day history of severe headache. He did not have fever or neurological abnormalities and showed no evidence of head trauma. Cranial computed tomography(CT)revealed sphenoid sinusitis and a small amount of epidural air in the middle fossa, but no other intracranial abnormalities. After eight days with no subsequent history of trauma, radiological exams showed a massive acute epidural hematoma in the left middle fossa and temporal convexity without any vascular lesion or skull fracture. The patient underwent a hematoma evacuation that revealed neither a skull fracture nor a vascular abnormality. In this adolescent, chronic nasal sinusitis caused fragility of the meningeal artery wall, an air collection in the epidural space, and the detachment of the dura mater from the inner surface of the skull, thereby resulting in a non-traumatic acute EDH.