Should the elderly be alerted to chronic intracranial hematoma when they fall frequently?

  The patient, male, 87 years old, presented to the clinic with the main reason of unsteadiness in walking and mental depression for half a month. The patient had difficulty walking due to his advanced age and excessive winter clothing. Therefore, he inadvertently fell several times while walking around his home. The last one was 2 weeks ago, and there was also a brief loss of consciousness due to a heavy fall on the head. Since there was only a small amount of scalp bleeding after waking up, and there was no headache, vomiting, limb paralysis, or visual impairment, the family did not investigate deeply. The patient was later found to be unstable in walking, depressed, and eating less before he was sent to the hospital by his family. During the inquiry, the patient was still thinking clearly, was in a wheelchair, did not meet tongue paralysis, and had normal movement of the limbs. To be on the safe side, the patient was given an MRI appointment, which revealed intracranial and subdural hematomas in the patient’s right temporal and occipital lobes, respectively.  Physician’s comment: Chronic subdural hematoma is a common disease in neurosurgery, mostly seen after head trauma, accounting for 10-15% of traumatic brain hematomas, and prone to occur in the elderly. Because of the slow response of the elderly, coupled with brain atrophy, the hematoma appears later causing high cranial pressure, so families often focus on scalp trauma. Therefore, all elderly people who have had a fall on their head, even though they have no special discomfort (because of the patient’s inaccurate expression), their family members should pay attention to them in the first month, and they can visit the hospital several times to check CT or MRI as needed. detect the disease at an early stage to prevent the hematoma from increasing and causing life-threatening injuries.