Citation

Gordon AS, Tofil N, Marullo D, Blount JP. Childs Nerv. Syst. 2014; 30(9): 1589-1594.

Affiliation

Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1720 2nd Ave S, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA, agordon@uabmc.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00381-014-2429-0

PMID

24798479

Abstract

PURPOSE: Penetrating gunshot wounds to the head (GSWH) have notoriously poor outcomes with extremely high mortality. Long-term follow-up data of affected children is scant in the medical literature. This report summarizes clinical presentation, management, and long-term outcomes from three children who survived "execution style" frontal, bihemispheric gunshot wounds with no or minimal surgical intervention.

METHODS: A retrospective chart review of available medical records and outcomes from standardized, validated psychological instruments was undertaken, summarized, and evaluated.

RESULTS: Despite bihemispheric injuries in each patient, no patient required operative intervention. Each child survived without readily evident neurologic impairment; however, the extent of impaired executive function varied widely, and severe disinhibition remains profoundly disabling in one survivor.

CONCLUSIONS: Bihemispheric penetrating gunshot injuries are not uniformly fatal and can occasionally be associated with long-term favorable survival; however, impaired executive function has significant potential to be profoundly disabling in these injuries.

Language: en