A 65-year-old patient presents with an altered level of consciousness and headache. There is a history of fall. It is unclear whether the patient developed a headache and then fell or if the headache developed only after the fall. What is the best method for distinguishing between a traumatic versus an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage?

Dr. Anton Helman is an Emergency Physician at North York General in Toronto. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Division of Emergency Medicine and the Education Innovation Lead at the Schwartz-Reisman Emergency Medicine Instititute. He is the founder, editor-in-chief and host of Emergency Medicine Cases.