Symptoms of the skull base fracture

Symptoms

If there is a fracture of the base of the skull, this can manifest itself as so-called liquorrhea. This means the escape of nerve water (Liquor) from the nose or ear, if the injury creates an open connection to the cerebrospinal fluid-filled spaces between the meninges that surround the brain.

In the case of a frontobasal skull base fracture, the liquor usually emerges from the nose, whereas in a laterobasal fracture it comes from the ear. Liquor is a clear liquid that surrounds the brain. When it escapes, however, it usually turns bloody due to the simultaneous damage to vessels.

Not only CSF leakage, but also various bleeding without the addition of CSF can be a sign of a skull base fracture. This includes bleeding from the mouth, ears and nose or intracranial (inside the skull). It also includes special forms of bruises (hematomas). These are referred to as glasses or monocle hematomas, which means the formation of the bruise around the eye sockets. In a spectacle hematoma, both eye sockets are affected, so that an image is created that is similar to a person wearing glasses. In a monocular hematoma, on the other hand, only one of the cavities is changed; the patient resembles a monocle wearer.

Bleeding can occur not only around the eye, but also behind or behind the eyeball eardrum arise. In these cases, they are called when the eye is involved retroauricular Bleeding (retroauricular = behind the eye) and with involvement of the eardrum region as hematotympanum. The former form of bleeding can affect the eyeball (Globe) push forward, a so-called Protrusio bulbi (Protrusio = protrusion). A hematotympanum is characterized by the accumulation of blood in the tympanic cavity (content = auditory ossicles) behind the eardrum.

The clinical picture of a skull base fracture also includes failures of Cranial nervese.g. eye movement disorders, hearing loss, dizziness, Blindness or olfactory disorders. Since the cranial nerves emerge at the base of the skull, they can be injured or constricted in the event of a fracture, which in turn leads to the described failure symptoms.