[Intracranial hemorrhage in infancy due to vitamin K deficiency: report of a case with multiple intracerebral hematomas with ring-like high density figures]

Abstract

It is well known that vitamin K deficiency is an important cause of the spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage in infancy. A 60-day-old male infant with spontaneous intracerebral hematomas due to vitamin K deficiency was presented. He was breast-fed. He had been medicated oral antibiotic agent for diarrhea and fever. Three days later he developed petechien, vomiting and twitching, and became drowsy. The blood studies showed anemia, and advance of ESR. He was administered of vitamin K immediately. CT scan was showed four intracerebral hematomas with niveau, which were surrounded by high-density rings. The ring-like figures were unique for this case. The reason may be next, we think. Under the states in which blood can separate easily with advance of ESR, blood clot would adhere to the wall of the hematomas. So these hematomas showed ring-like figures and had niveau in them. CT scan of this case was also interesting because there was little deviation in spite of the big hematomas. The reason of this may be that the brain of infancy is incomplete in myelination and contains much water, and that the possibility of bleeding due to vitamin K occurs slowly. We examined 84 cases of intracranial hemorrhage due to vitamin K deficiency from literatures, and they were all identified for the hemorrhage sites by CT scan. Subarachnoidal hemorrhage was in 72 cases (85.7%), subdural hemorrhage was in 41 cases (48.8%), intracerebral hematomas was in 36 cases (42.9%) and intraventricular hemorrhage was in 9 cases (10.7%). In 52 cases the CT findings were described.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)