[Epidural hematomas in the posterior cranial fossa].

In the course of twenty years 92 patients with intracranial epidural haematomas (EH) were operated. In five these patients, i.e. 5.4%, the EH was in the posterior cranial fossa (EHPF). Focal symptoms of compression of the cerebellum and the lower cranial nerves developed only in subacute EHPF. In acute EHPF it was masked by manifestations of an affection of the brain stem. Direct evidence of EHPF was produced by AG. The best diagnostic method is computed tomography. Attention to EHPF can be however, drawn also clinical sings of injury of the bask of the skull or the finding of a fracture of the occipital bone on an X-ray picture of the skull. Evacuation of the EHPF provides favourable perspectives of a normal future life even on patients who are in a poor condition incl. signs of and impaired respiration.