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When doctors are referring to hematomas that occur in the brain they use certain medical terms that may confuse you as to what they actually mean. You may have heard terms like bilateral- temporal- subdural hematoma, left- frontal -parietal epidural hematoma and other “alien” terminology. They may seem daunting to you because of the length of words and seemingly complicated vocabulary. However, once you learn the basic they will be much easier to understand.

Subdural versus epidural hematomas

Hematomas in the brain can be identified according to their location in the layers covering the brain and the sub-area (lobes) of the brain that are affected. According to the location where the mass of blood accumulates, hematomas are categorized into subdural and epidural hematomas. Subdural hematoma occurs in the area below the dura mater and above the arachnoid mater. Whereas epidural hematoma takes place above the dura mater and just below the skull.

Subdural hematoma is then sub-categorized into accute, sub acute and chronic, depending on the speed of onset. Epidural hematoma is almost always acute and therefore further sub-categorized according to the locations affected, whether the brain (intercranial epidural hematoma) or the spinal cord/column (spinal epidural hematoma).

The Four Brain Lobes

There are four lobes in the brain, each having their distinct functions:

• Frontal lobe: diverse behavioral functions, speech, cognition and emotions
• Parietal lobe: mediates perception of touch, pain, and limb position
• Occipital lobe: visual perception
• Temporal lobe: memory, emotions, perception and localization of sounds

If the subdural or epidural hematoma occurs in both sides of a lobe, we call it a bilateral hematoma. Therefore, bilateral-temporal-subdural-hematoma means subdural hematoma that affects both sides of the temporal lobe. Subdural hematoma can also occur along the falx, a thin layer of dura that lies in the interhemispheric fissure. In that case we call it falx subdural hematoma. By the same token, epidural hematoma that only affects the left-side of frontal and parietal lobes is called left- frontal-parietal epidural hematoma (or left-fronto-parietal epidural hematoma, as some would prefer).