Cerebellar hemorrhage: reliability of clinical evaluation.

Surgery without confirmatory radiological contrast studies has been advocated in patients suspected of having a cerebellar hemorrhage. To determine the reliabiligy of the clinical evaluation, records were reviewed of 33 patients in whom the diagnosis of cerebellar hemorrhage was initially suspected or subsequently confirmed. In 13 patients the correct diagnosis had been made initially by clinical evaluation, but in ten patients the correct diagnosis was not suspected at the initial evaluation. The remaining ten patients had typical backgrounds, symptoms, and signs of a spontaneous cerebellar hemorrhage, but radiological contrast studies and clinical observation indicated that other neurological lesions were responsible. Thus, utilizing solely the clinical evaluation, the diagnosis of cerebellar hemorrhage may be made only with difficulty and not with the certainty required for emergency surgery.