• Christian Zeckey, Frank Hildebrand, Hans-Christoph Pape, Philipp Mommsen, Martin Panzica, Boris A Zelle, Nicola Alexander Sittaro, Ralf Lohse, Christian Krettek, and Christian Probst.
• Trauma Department, Hannover Medical School, Germany. zeckey.christian@mh-hannover.de
• Brain Inj. 2011 Jan 1; 25 (6): 551-9.

IntroductionHead injuries are of great relevance for the prognosis of polytrauma patients during acute care. However, knowledge about the impact on the long-term outcome is sparse. Therefore, this study analysed the role of head injuries on the outcome of polytrauma patients more than 10 years after injury in a matched-pair analysis.Patients And MethodsOut of 620 polytrauma patients with and without head injury, a matched-pair analysis with comparable age, injury severity and gender distribution and a minimum of 10 years follow-up was performed. The outcome and quality-of-life were measured using the Hannover Score for Polytrauma Outcome (HASPOC), Short Form 12 (SF-12), Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) and other parameters.ResultsThe matched-pair analysis consisted of 125 pairs (age 27.9 ± 1.2 years, ISS 20.0 ± 0.8 [head injury] vs ISS 19.8 ± 0.8 [no head injury]). A significant difference was shown for the GOS Score only (GOS head injury 4.3 ± 0.3 vs no head injury 4.9 ± 0.2, p = 0.01). The psychological outcome was similar in both groups. Both groups reported comparable subjective rehabilitation satisfaction.ConclusionsMatching pairs of equally injured polytrauma patients of same gender with and without head injury 10 years following trauma indicated significantly worse results in the GOS due to head injury.

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