Pneumocephalus and Neurologic Deficit Due to Neck StabWound in a Twenty Nine-Year-Old Man

Introduction: The presence of air within the intracranial cavity, due to the entry of air secondary to an abnormal communicationafter a dural tear, is defined as pneumocephalus and intraventricular pneumocephalus also known as pneumoventricle. Obviously,common etiologies of pneumocephalus are head injury and cranial surgery. Also, less common non-traumatic causes of pneumocephalusare neoplasm or from a gas-forming organism infection. Although pneumocephalus after spinal penetrating injuries israre,it was reported. The object of this report is to describe the case of patient with pneumoventricle after neck spinal stab wound.Case Presentation: A 29-year-old man presented to ED with complaint of two stab wounds, one of them was located at the rightback chest and the other at the midline neck. Because of the respiratory distress and decreased breath sounds, after taking a chestX-ray, we realized hemothorax in right hemithorax and placed the chest tube in ED. In addition, in requested neck CT scan, therewas a defuse air in neck spine that spread to his brain. Furthermore, neurologic examination showed weakness in left leg motorfunction and loss of pain and temperature sensation in the other leg, which was based on brown-sequard syndrome. Mentionedpatient admitted in neurosurgery department for further follow-up.Conclusions: Pneumoventricle is rare but it can be established after spinal trauma. By awareness of such possibility, accurate diagnosisby clinical examination and imaging is essential for these types of injuries.

Pneumocephalus and Neurologic Deficit Due to Neck StabWound in a Twenty Nine-Year-Old Man Keywords:

Pneumocephalus , Pneumoventricle , Spine , StabWound