Duret Hemorrhages

Excerpt

Brainstem hemorrhages classify as primary or secondary. Primary hemorrhages result from direct trauma, hypertension, coagulopathy, whereas secondary hemorrhages may result from descending transtentorial herniation from diverse etiologies. The latter is known as Duret hemorrhages (DH) named after a French neurologist Henri Duret, who first described the distribution of arterial supply in the brainstem and then in the cerebral cortex. He studied brain trauma and localized the origin of disturbances in autonomic function to the brainstem. These disturbances showed links to microhemorrhages affecting the medulla and pons, as a consequence of DH.