Ischemic stroke due to minor head trauma in a child: a case report

Abstract

Head trauma usually causes hemorrhage, but in children ischemia of basal ganglia may develop. Traumaticstroke occasionally develops after dissection of brain vessels, leading to disseminated cerebral embolism.Stretching forces in cerebral intraparenchymal arteries can cause vascular damage followed by an occludingthrombus. An 18-month-old girl presented to our emergency department with the complaint of head traumaafter falling down while playing. Her parents recognized the weakness of her left site extremity after 6 hoursafter the event. After initial physical examination and further imaging studies brain magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) showed an infarct affecting the caudate nucleus in the right cerebral hemisphere. In childhood, ischemicstroke due to mild head trauma is an exceedingly rare event and may be overlooked in emergency medicinepractice. We aimed to emphasize that mild head trauma may cause critical situations such as acute infarct inchildren.