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False-Positive Presentation of Battle’s Sign During Hepatic Encephalopathy

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Abstract

Introduction

Battle’s sign is a classical clinical sign that has long been held to be synonymous with fracture of the basal skull. As such the presence of Battle’s sign is a strong indicator that a basal skull fracture could be present in the head injured patient, as exemplified by its inclusion as a major risk factor in scoring systems designed to assess the likelihood of basal skull fracture.

Discussion

We present a case that describes the occurrence of this classic clinical sign in an unlikely setting and, for the first time since it was described more than 120 years ago, re-examine the pathologic basis for its appearance.

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Correspondence to G. L. Ackland.

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Ackland, G.L., O’Beirne, J., Platts, A.R. et al. False-Positive Presentation of Battle’s Sign During Hepatic Encephalopathy. Neurocrit Care 9, 253–255 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-008-9116-5

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