Computerized Tomography Imaging Features of Head Injury in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital

Background: Trauma is global health epidemic and associated head injury is a major contributor to the high mortality. This necessitates the urgent use of neuroimaging for early diagnosis and patient care. Computer Tomography CT, scan is the imaging modality of choice in emergency situations because of its image acquisition speed and ability to accurately detect fractures and intracranial bleeds.

Aim: To document the CT imaging findings in head trauma patients in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal capital.

Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study of findings in 319 head trauma Nigerians visiting a referral hospital in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja from January 2014-October 2016. Numerical and graphical descriptors were used to summarize the data. In all statistical tests, significance level was set at an alpha level of 0.05.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 32.7±17 years with most between the ages of 24 – 35 years (n=99, 31.0%). More males than females participated in the study in a ratio of 5.8:1.

Road traffic accident, RTA was the commonest cause occurring in 280 (87.8%) cases (male=240, female=40), especially in the third and fourth decades.

271(84.9%) had abnormal CT findings while 48(15.1%) were recorded as normal.

The most prevalent abnormal findings were complex lesions (including more than one type of intracranial pathology) in 112 (35.1%) cases. Hemorrhagic contusion was the commonest intracranial lesion in 65 (21%) patients cases while extra axial cerebrospinal space heamorrhages were the least detected in 3 (0.9%) cases. There were 132 (41.4%) recorded cases of fracture with only 25(8.8%) occurring without an associated intracranial lesion.

Conclusion: RTA is a major cause of head injury in the most productive age group in our environment with CT scan as an invaluable imaging tool in the investigation and management of these patients.