Intracranial hemorrhage (summary)

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This is a basic article for medical students and other non-radiologists

Intracranial hemorrhage refers to bleeding within the intracranial cavity and is, therefore, a catch-all term which includes parenchymal (intra-axial) hemorrhage and the various types of extra-axial hemorrhage including, subarachnoid, subdural and extradural hemorrhage.

Reference article

This is a summary article; read more in our article on Intracranial hemorrhage.

Summary

Imaging

  • role of imaging
    • is there any hemorrhage?
    • where is it?
    • is the cause visible on the scan, e.g. fracture, aneurysm)?
    • are there any complications, e.g. mass effect, midline shift?
  • radiographic features
    • acute hemorrhage is hyperdense (white) on CT
    • as the blood ages, the density decreases
      • chronic blood approaches the density of CSF
    • sizable hemorrhage may cause mass effect and midline shift
Medical student radiology curriculum