IMAGES IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Beware the pulsatile proptosis
1 Bristol Eye Hospital, Bristol, UK
2 Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, UK
Correspondence to:
Miss M K M Adams, Bristol Eye Hospital, Bristol BS1 2LX, UK; madeleine.adams@virgin.net
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
A 26-year-old man walked into the emergency unit with a 1 cm laceration on his right upper eyelid sustained on falling onto a bush while inebriated. A stick had pierced his right upper eyelid and had been removed by his friend. A 4 mm pulsatile proptosis was noted, with no direct damage to the eye. An urgent CT scan of the orbits and brain demonstrated a fracture of the orbital roof with an associated encephalocele (fig 1). Broad spectrum intravenous antibiotics were administered and he was transferred to the neurosurgical unit. He subsequently underwent an exploratory craniotomy with repair of the encephalocele. A 3x1 cm piece of bark was extracted from the brain.
Figure 1 CT scan of orbits and brain showing fracture of the orbital roof with an associated encephalocele.
| |||||||||
Orbital roof fractures with traumatic encephaloceles in adults are rare.1 A pulsatile proptosis following head or facial
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
