Evaluation of Incidental Findings in Brain CT Scans of Mild Head Trauma Patients (GCS: Thirteen to Fifteen)

Background: To determine the prevalence of incidental findings on brain CT scan in mild head trauma patients. Methods: From November 2005 to April 2006, we evaluated 732 CT Scans of cases with mild head trauma (Glasgow Coma Scale Score of thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen), whom referred to our university affiliated hospital. In this study, we evaluated incidental findings on brain CT of our patients, as well as size of the cistern magna.

Results: Five hundred (68.3%) of our patients were male and 232 (31.7%) were female. The mean age of our cases were 27.4±19.2 (one month to 89 years old).Incidental findings were found on 22 cases (3.1%).Among these, there were five tumors (0.7%), eight arachnoids cysts (1.1%), and five bones lesions (0.7%). Large cisterna magna (>10 cm3) was seen in four cases. Incidental findings in males were seen in ten cases (45%) and in females were seen in 12 cases (55%) (P=0.019). The mean age of cases with incidental findings were 37.2±20.6 years and in cases without incidental findings were 27.1±19.1 years (P=0.011).

Conclusion: In this study we found that arachnoid cyst was the most common incidental finding, and brain tumor and bone lesions were next common ones.