title: Neurosurgical aspects of sedimentation levels in acute intracerebral haematoma.
abstract: We describe the neurosurgical aspects of sedimentation levels that are rarely found in acute intracerebral haematomas (ICH). We had four patients with acute ICH whose cerebral computed tomography revealed sedimentation levels. Two patients had received thrombolytic therapy for ischaemic heart disease and one for ischaemic stroke. Another patient, who was diagnosed later as having a coagulation disorder, did not have any medical history on admission. All patients had emergency ICH drainage under local anaesthesia. In the immediate postoperative period, we observed dramatic improvement in all the patients, without surgical complications. The sedimentation level in an ICH should be identified as a specific indicator of a coagulation defect and a thorough search for possible underlying coagulopathy is warranted. We believe that simple ICH drainage should be performed as the haematoma is in a liquid form.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Ewha Women's University, 911-1, Yang-Cheon gu, Mokdong College of Medicine, Seoul 158-710, Korea.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Song