Cerebral venous thrombosis in children.

From May 1984 to April 1995, a total of 16 patients (12 females, 4 males) with cerebral venous thrombosis, diagnosed by computed tomography (CT), conventional cerebral angiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), were reviewed retrospectively. The age ranged from 1 month to 16 years of age (average: 2.5 years) with 8 below 1 year of age. The presenting symptoms for infants were mental change (75%) and seizure (100%), mainly generalized (63%) in character. Associated illness was mainly closed head injury, diarrhea or dehydration. All infants had mild to severe motor handicap in a 1 to 10 year follow-up. In contrast, older children frequently presented with headache (37%) or consciousness change (50%), and were more frequently associated with sepsis or local infections. Four (50%) of them recovered completely, but two died and two were finally in a vegetative state. For the four patients with poor prognosis, all had severe initial insults and widespread sinus thrombosis. MRI and MRA are better than CT for the diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis. It was concluded that prognosis for venous thrombosis cases in infants is worse than in older children, but this also depends on the severity of initial insults. For infants who present with intractable seizures, cerebral venous thrombosis should be taken into account when the seizures are difficult to control.