Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
-
J Vasc Interv Neurol · Oct 2015
Traumatic Brain Injury Related to Motor Vehicle Accidents in Guinea: Impact of Treatment Delay, Access to Healthcare, and Patient's Financial Capacity on Length of Hospital Stay and In-hospital Mortality.
Traumatic brain injury related to road traffic accidents poses a major challenge in resource-poor settings within Guinea. ⋯ Prolonged hospital stay and higher in-hospital mortality was associated with longer time interval between accident and hospital arrival. This delay is attributed to inadequate condition of intercity roads and lack of emergency medical services.
-
Acta neurochirurgica · Oct 2015
Review Meta AnalysisEpidemiology of traumatic brain injury in Europe.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a critical public health and socio-economic problem throughout the world, making epidemiological monitoring of incidence, prevalence and outcome of TBI necessary. We aimed to describe the epidemiology of traumatic brain injury in Europe and to evaluate the methodology of incidence studies. ⋯ Interpretation of published epidemiologic studies is confounded by differences in inclusion criteria and case ascertainment. Nevertheless, changes in epidemiological patterns are found: falls are now the most common cause of TBI, most notably in elderly patients. Improvement of the quality of standardised data collection for TBI is mandatory for reliable monitoring of epidemiological trends and to inform appropriate targeting of prevention campaigns.
-
J Neurosurg Pediatr · Oct 2015
Comparative StudyAnalysis of long-term (median 10.5 years) outcomes in children presenting with traumatic brain injury and an initial Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3 or 4.
Patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) with low presenting Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores have very high morbidity and mortality rates. Neurosurgeons may be faced with difficult decisions in managing the most severely injured (GCS scores of 3 or 4) patients. The situation may be considered hopeless, with little chance of a functional recovery. Long-term data are limited regarding the clinical outcome of children with severe head injury. The authors evaluate predictor variables and the clinical outcomes at discharge, 1 year, and long term (median 10.5 years) in a cohort of children with TBI presenting with postresuscitation GCS scores of 3 and 4. ⋯ In this cohort of 67 TBI patients with a presenting GCS score of 3 or 4, 56.6% died within 1 year. However, approximately 15% of patients had a good outcome at 10 or more years. Factors that correlated with survival and outcome included the pupillary response, hypothermia, and mechanism. The authors discuss factors that may help surgeons make critical decisions regarding their most serious pediatric trauma patients.
-
Journal of neurotrauma · Oct 2015
ReviewAlterations in Cholinergic Pathways and Therapeutic Strategies Targeting Cholinergic System after Traumatic Brain Injury.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in varying degrees of disability in a significant number of persons annually. The mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction after TBI have been explored in both animal models and human clinical studies for decades. Dopaminergic, serotonergic, and noradrenergic dysfunction has been described in many previous reports. ⋯ Although pharmacological agents that modulate cholinergic neurotransmission have been used with varying degrees of success in previous studies, improving their function and maximizing cognitive recovery is an ongoing process. In this article, we review the previous findings on the biological mechanism of cholinergic dysfunction after TBI. In addition, we describe studies that use both older agents and newly developed agents as candidates for targeting cholinergic neurotransmission in future studies.
-
Journal of neurotrauma · Oct 2015
Prevalence & Predictors of Poor Recovery from Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
Although most patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) recover within 3 months, a subgroup of patients experience persistent symptoms. Yet, the prevalence and predictors of persistent dysfunction in patients with mTBI remain poorly understood. In a longitudinal study, we evaluated predictors of symptomatic and cognitive dysfunction in adolescents and young adults with mTBI, compared with two control groups-patients with orthopedic injuries and healthy uninjured individuals. ⋯ The rate of high symptom report in mTBI was markedly greater than that of typically developing (13%) and OC (17%) groups; the proportion of those with poor cognitive performance in the mTBI group exceeded that of typically developing controls (15.8%), but was similar to that of the OC group (34.9%). Older age at injury, female sex, and acute symptom report were predictors of poor symptomatic outcome at 3 months. Socioeconomic status was the only significant predictor of poor cognitive outcome at 3 months.