Growing Skull Fracture

A rare complication of skull fracture in children is a growing skull fracture. It is reported to occur when a linear skull fracture in a child under age 3 is accompan­ied by a dural tear and a leptomeningeal cyst develops. Fluid pulsations result in bone erosion and a palpa­ble skull defect that requires surgical repair (35-37). A series of eight children with growing skull fractures had MRI evidence of a zone of signal intensity similar to brain contusion or CSF through the margins of the fracture, leading to their conclusion that MRI can be useful in diagnosing growing skull fracture early after injury (37).