Resumo

ALVES, Flávia Andrezza Gomes et al. Pneumocephalus associated with facial trauma: a case report. Rev. cir. traumatol. buco-maxilo-fac. [online]. 2012, vol.12, n.4, pp. 69-72. ISSN 1808-5210.

Pneumocephalus consists of an accumulation of air inside the intracranial cavity, and may or may not be associated with the rupture of the dura mater. Due to its location, the main symptoms occur as a result of intracranial hypertension, characterizing headache, seizure, decreased level of consciousness, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and hemiparesis. The present study sets out to report a case of a 27-year-old male patient, a car accident victim with facial and skull trauma, presenting originally a facial asymmetry with sinking of the right zygomatic region, epistaxis with no apparent nasal alteration, diplopia, decreased left hearing acuity, manipulation without mobility or crackling bone of the middle third of the face and progressing in twelve hours to paralysis and numbness in the left hemiface, frontal headache and dizziness in the standing position. A cranial CT scan showed several hypodense images in the intracranial region compatible with massive pneumocephalus. A clinical follow-up revealed involution of the case in 6 days.

Palavras-chave : Pneumocephalus; Pneumocephalus tension; Intracranial gas.