BACKGROUND Pneumocephalus occurs as a result of traumatic or iatrogenic violation of the dura. Tension pneumocephalus, whereby air continues to accumulate with no mechanism for escape, can cause significant morbidity and mortality. METHODS This case report reviews the underlying pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of tension pneumocephalus. RESULTS We present t...

Intracerebral tension pneumocephalus is a rare disorder. Only five cases of them have been reported since 1985. We report two cases of intracerebral tension pneumocephalus with traumatic rhinorrhea. In the first case, intracerebral tension pneumocephalus was induced by lumbar puncture performed two months after trauma. In the second case, intracerebral tension pneumocephalus was observed on com...

Introduction: Pneumocephalus is air or gas located in the intracranial cavity. Head trauma is the most common cause of pneumocephalus, with the majority of cases resulting from sinus and basilar skull fractures. A small number of case reports have been published describing pneumocephalus after cervical and thoracic penetrating injuries. To our knowledge, we report the first case of severe pneum...

Background: Pneumocephalus is an injury that characterized by air entrance into the intracranial space. It may occur after head trauma, infection, tumor or it may be iatrogenic. According to the amount of air increases, this can cause neurological findings with a mass effect and this condition is called tension pneumocephalus. Case report: In this study present a case of a 63 year old man prese...

Trauma to skull base or sinus is the most common cause of pneumocephalus. There are only few published reports of traumatic pneumocephalus secondary to penetrating injury of upper spine, epidural anaesthesia and lumber puncture. Till date only one case of pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachiasis after thoracic spine stab injury is reported in available English literature that too associated without...

Tension pneumocephalus is rare but has been well documented following trauma and neurosurgical procedures. It is a surgical emergency as it can lead to neurological deterioration, brainstem herniation and death. Unlike previous cases where tension pneumocephalus developed postoperatively, we describe a case of intraoperative tension pneumocephalus leading to sudden, massive open brain herniatio...

INTRODUCTION Pneumocephalus is usually a self-limiting condition commonly associated with neurosurgical interventions, head and facial trauma. In contrast, tension pneumocephalus is extremely rare, and considered a neurosurgical emergency. CASE PRESENTATION We present a rare case of post-traumatic epidural tension pneumocephalus in a 30-year-old white man who deteriorated rapidly after a blun...

Trauma is a common cause of pneumocephalus, or air in the cranial cavity, and of pneumorrhachis, or the presence of intraspinal air. After spinal surgery, occurrence of pneumocephalus, especially with pneumorrhachis, is extremely rare. We report the case of a patient who developed pneumocephalus and pneumorrhachis after lumbar disc surgery and pedicle screw fixation. There was no cerebrospinal ...

Subarachnoid pleural fistula (SPF) is an extremely rare complication that occurs after dural space and vertebral columns injuries. SPF is divided into two diagnoses based on the absence or presence of pneumocephalus and pneumorrachis. While pneumocephalus is defined as the presence of air the cranial cavity, if there is air in the spinal canal, this is defined as pneumorrhachis. In general, the...

Symptomatic pneumocephalus is a rare complication of degenerative lumbar spine surgery. This is a case report of a patient who developed transient diplopia associated with pneumocephalus following lumbar spine surgery complicated by a dural tear. The diplopia improved as the pneumocephalus resolved. Factors involved in the development of pneumocephalus include an unintended durotomy and intraop...