Subdural hematoma in a teenager related to roller-coaster ride.

Department of Radiology. Medica Sur Hospital and Clinical Foundation, Puente de Piedra #150. Col. Toriello Guerra, Deleg, Tlalpan, CP 14050, Mexico City, Mexico. ernest.roldan@usa.net

Reports about neurological injury related to roller-coaster rides mostly involve adults; we present a case of subdural hematoma in a pediatric patient presented 14 days after a roller-coaster ride. These rides show extreme up-and-down, to-and-fro, and rotatory acceleration/deceleration forces that could produce tensile and shearing stresses with tearing of bridging cerebral veins resulting in subdural hemorrhage. Pediatricians should consider roller-coaster riding a modern cause of subdural hematoma, as well as a possible cause of unexplained neurologic events in otherwise healthy adolescents.

PMID: 16949843 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]