Traumatically caused central brain haemorrhages are relatively rare. From 1976 through 1984 3598 patients were submitted to computed tomography examination in our department after craniocerebral trauma. Central lesions could only be found in about 3% of the injured. They generally occurred in combination with other severe damage of the skull and skull contents. Most frequently, such central haemorrhages could be found in the basal ganglia occasionally extending into the adjacent medullary layer resulting in large intracerebral haematoma. The right hemisphere was affected significantly more frequently and more severely by such large-size haemorrhages than the left hemisphere. The thalamus region ranking second in localisation of central traumatic haemorrhages was virtually never found to be the origin of large haematomas. In general, no definite distinction could be made between primary and secondary traumatic haemorrhages. We identified, however, a few cases of purely central bleeding without accompanying brain lesions. These haematomas, which were most probably caused primarily by trauma, as well as those with associated damage, preferred the regions of basal ganglia and thalamus. The prognosis of central brain haemorrhages was relatively poor with a 42% lethality rate. However, it depended on the severity of the accompanying brain lesions. Thus, isolated central haemorrhages even had a markedly favourable prognosis. The number of survivors of central bleeding turned out to be approximately the same as the number of deaths, the ratio thus being 1:1. Nevertheless, we think that especially small lesions occur more frequently and have a better survival rate than had been supposed up to now.