Superior sagittal sinus air after penetrating craniocerebral trauma

Traumatic dural venous sinus gas predicts a higher likelihood of dural venous sinus thrombosis following blunt head trauma

“…Traumatic intrasinus gas has been documented in prior case reports but no significance has been inferred . Our results show a statistically significant association between the presence of intrasinus gas and DVST following blunt head trauma, an association not previously reported.…”

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] It has not been investigated whether patients with intraluminal sinus gas may have a higher likelihood of DVST in the setting of trauma. Intrasinus gas has been noted in prior case reports [18][19][20][21][22][23] and we postulate that it may be a marker of sinus injury, suggesting an increased risk of sinus thrombosis. The purpose of this study was to determine whether an association exists between intrasinus gas and dural venous sinus thrombosis in patients with blunt head trauma.…”

Computerized Tomography Appearance of Accidental Infusion of Air into the Venous Sinuses

“…An intravenous bolus injection of air can cross the pulmonary capillary bed [6], Air embolism is a well-recognized complication during cranial surgery whenever venous intracranial pressure is subatmospheric [3], and several techniques have been described for monitoring and prevention of massive air embolism, using echodoppler and Swan-Ganz catheter [4], Air can leak into the cerebral venous system as a result of skull fracture [1] or penetrating wound of the skull [2]. A pre viously reported case of accidental infusion of air into a scalp vein of an infant but with no imaging caused mas sive air embolism which resulted in paraplegia, gastroin testinal bleeding and hematuria [5], A bronchial venous fistula in an adult secondary to direct invasion by tumor resulted in a cerebral air embolism and infarction [7].…”

“…A pre viously reported case of accidental infusion of air into a scalp vein of an infant but with no imaging caused mas sive air embolism which resulted in paraplegia, gastroin testinal bleeding and hematuria [5], A bronchial venous fistula in an adult secondary to direct invasion by tumor resulted in a cerebral air embolism and infarction [7]. The CT appearance of cerebral venous air in trauma has been described [1,2]. This report describes the CT appearance of air in the sagittal, transverse and sigmoid sinuses which was accidentally infused into the sagittal sinus through an inappropriately positioned scalp nee dle.…”

“…Venous sinus air embolism is most often described in association with severe head trauma [1,2] and intracra nial surgery [3][4][5], We describe a newborn in whom scalp needle insertion in the sagittal sinus resulted in venous sinus embolism. This was fortunately not associated with any sequelae, probably due to its early detection on the CT scan and prompt removal of the needle.…”