Intracranial abnormalities requiring emergency treatment: Identification by a single midline tomographie slice versus complete CT of the head

We retrospectively reviewed 89 noncontrast computerized tomographic scans of the head in trauma patients to determine whether a single midiine image could reliably identify intracranial lesions significant enough to warrant emergency surgery. We found that a midiine cut was able to detect 92% of all lesions for which emergency neurosurgical evacuation was considered necessary, though it detected only 71% of the more subtle abnormalities.