pneumocephalus
Sign in to saveAlso known as Airocoele, aerocele, Cranial Pneumocyst
Pneumocephalus is the presence of air or gas within the cranial cavity. It is usually associated with disruption of the skull: after head and facial trauma, tumors of the skull base, after neurosurgery or otorhinolaryngology, and rarely, spontaneously. Pneumocephalus can occur in scuba diving, but is very rare in this context.
Research
2,592 papers- [Pneumocephalus].Ugeskrift for laeger · 2026
- Tension Pneumocephalus.Anesthesiology · 2017
- Tension pneumocephalus.Brazilian journal of anesthesiology (Elsevier) · 2023
- Air travel with pneumocephalus: a systematic review.Acta neurochirurgica · 2022
- Pneumocephalus.The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India · 2021
via PubMed
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Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Additional images
- Footnotes
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Pneumocephalus is the presence of air or gas within the cranial cavity. It is usually associated with disruption of the skull: after head and facial trauma, tumors of the skull base, after neurosurgery or otorhinolaryngology, and rarely, spontaneously. Pneumocephalus can occur in scuba diving, but is very rare in this context.
If there is a valve mechanism which allows air to enter the skull but prevents it from escaping, a tension pneumocephalus can occur (similar to what can happen in a tension pneumothorax).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “pneumocephalus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.