• Dylan P Griswold, Nancy Carney, Nicolas M Ballarini, Laura L Fernandez, Angelos Kolias, Peter J Hutchinson, and Andres M Rubiano.
• Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
• Neurosurgery. 2022 Aug 1; 91 (2): 355359355-359.

BackgroundSevere traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is a public health issue with great disparity among low- and middle-income countries where the implementation of evidence-based guidelines is challenging because resources are often unavailable. A consensus process including experts in the prehospital, emergency department, neurosurgery, and intensive care unit took place in Colombia to develop a set of stratified protocols called BOOTStraP, targeting resource-poor environments, but it has not been systematically implemented and tested.ObjectiveTo identify the facilitators of, and barriers to, collecting data about patients with sTBI and to implement a stratified protocol across the treatment phases of prehospital, emergency department, neurosurgery, and intensive care unit in low-resource settings. We also aim to identify a possible association between adherence to these protocols and outcomes for these patients.MethodsA prospective, observational, before and after, pilot study will be performed in three phases as follows: before implementation, implementation, and after implementation. The BOOTStraP protocols will be implemented in three Colombian centers.Expected OutcomesWe expect to find numerous barriers during the implementation phase. We also expect moderate adherence to the protocols. However, we expect to find an increase in the survival rate to hospital discharge and an improvement in neurological outcomes at discharge.DiscussionThis pilot study will serve as a first step to identify variables that are critical to successful implementation, to be considered for the design of a future large-scale international study to measure the effectiveness of resource-based protocols and to improve outcomes from sTBI.Copyright © The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

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