The hemorrhagic diathesis of scurvy has been recognized since the time of Hippocrates. Hemorrhage occurs most commonly beneath the periosteum of the long bones and into joint spaces but frequently involves the skin, mucous membranes, orbits and serous cavities. Reports of hemorrhage associated with the meninges during the active scorbutic state are sufficiently rare to deserve note. The occurrence of subdural hemorrhage in a case of infantile scurvy, in which an operation was performed in this hospital, has led us to review the literature for similar cases.
Willis,1 an English physician, in a treatise on scurvy published in 1668, mentioned the occurrence of intracranial hemorrhage in the course of this disease, an observation that was apparently based on pathologic examinations. Two hundred years later, in 1871, in a review of the pathologic anatomy of scurvy, Hayem2 presented the first case of hemorrhagic pachymeningitis associated with scurvy.
To Sutherland,