Epidemiology of Chronic Subdural Hematoma

Abstract

Reliable reports on the incidence of chronic subdural hematoma are rare in the literature. Echlin (1956) believed that subdural hematoma would occur in 1% of all head injury cases, and 1 in 4 of the 300 hematomas he reported was chronic. Klug (1961) reported that chronic subdural hematoma occurred in only 3 cases (0.08%) of 3901 cases of combined head injuries. Weber (1969) estimated the incidence among Swiss residents to be 1-2/100,000/year. In order to estimate the incidence rate among Finnish residents, the author collected a total of 40 cases of chronic subdural hematomas admitted to the Department of Neurology and Surgery at the University of Helsinki from 1967 to 1973 (the university is the only hospital in Helsinki that performs this kind of surgery). Those with a well-formed capsule