Goat horn-induced intracranial emphysema and orbital injury.

Abstract

This is a case description of a male patient found to have orbital and intracranial emphysema, specifically with air in his cavernous sinuses bilaterally following penetrating trauma to the medial orbit from a goat's horn. There were no orbital or skull base fractures. Although the presence of traumatic intracranial emphysema is not uncommon, it is typically the result of direct communication of the cranial vault with the paranasal sinuses in the setting of associated fracture or, alternatively, from direct penetration and inoculation. We present a rare case of orbital emphysema with traumatic intracranial emphysema without these previously described associations and postulate a mech``anism behind its development.