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Cerebral edema is a potentially life-threatening complication of severely decreased sodium ion concentration in the blood (hyponatremia). [17] Ionic brain edema can also occur around the sites of brain hemorrhages, infarcts, or contusions due to a local plasma osmolality pressure gradient when compared to the high osmolality in the affected tissue.
An increase in pressure, most commonly due to head injury leading to intracranial hematoma or cerebral edema, can crush brain tissue, shift brain structures, contribute to hydrocephalus, cause brain herniation, and restrict blood supply to the brain. [13] It is a cause of reflex bradycardia. [14]
The symptoms depend on the cause of the blockage, the person's age, and how much brain tissue has been damaged by the swelling. [11] In infants with hydrocephalus, CSF builds up in the central nervous system (CNS), causing the fontanelle (soft spot) to bulge and the head to be larger than
An intraparenchymal bleed (bottom arrow) with surrounding edema (top arrow) Pediatric stroke is a stroke that occurs in children or adolescents. Stroke affects an estimated 2.5 to 13 per 100,000 children annually. [1] The signs and symptoms of stroke in children, infants, and newborns are different from those in adults.
In addition, the walls of the blood vessels themselves become inflamed (cerebral vasculitis), which leads to decreased blood flow and a third type of edema, "cytotoxic" edema. The three forms of cerebral edema all lead to increased intracranial pressure; together with the lowered blood pressure often encountered in sepsis, this means that it is ...
Progressive cerebral edema may also occur. [27] [30] The increase of blood and brain volume within the skull causes a rapid and severe increase in intracranial pressure, which can in turn cause uncal and cerebellar brain herniation, a disastrous and potentially fatal condition in which the brain is squeezed past structures within the skull. [12]
Treatment is supportive; [1] mannitol may be used to help with the brain swelling. [2] The first detailed description of Reye syndrome was in 1963 by Australian pathologist Douglas Reye. [4] The syndrome most commonly affects children. [2] It affects fewer than one in a million children a year. [2]
Malignant post traumatic cerebral swelling can develop unexpectedly in stable patients after an injury, as can post-traumatic seizures. Recovery in children with neurologic deficits will vary. Children with neurologic deficits who improve daily are more likely to recover, while those who are vegetative for months are less likely to improve.