Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
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Economic evaluations provide a unique opportunity to identify the optimal strategies for the diagnosis and management of traumatic brain injury (TBI), for which uncertainty is common and the economic burden is substantial. ⋯ Threshold-guided CT scanning, adherence to Brain Trauma Foundation guidelines, and care for patients with TBI, including those with nonsurgical lesions, in specialized settings appear to be economically attractive strategies.
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Review
Actual data on epidemiological evolution and prevention endeavours regarding traumatic brain injury.
Knowledge of the epidemiology of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is required both to prevent this disorder and to develop effective care and rehabilitation approaches for patients. ⋯ CNS = central nervous system, ED = emergency department, EU = European Union, FTE = Full Time Employees, GCS = Glasgow Coma Scale, TBI = traumatic brain injury, US = United States, WHO = World Health Organization.
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More than one-half million patients are hospitalized annually for traumatic brain injury (TBI). One-quarter demonstrate sleep-disordered breathing, up to 50% experience insomnia, and half have hypersomnia. Sleep disturbances after TBI may result from injury to sleep-regulating brain tissue, nonspecific neurohormonal responses to systemic injury, ICU environmental interference, and medication side effects. ⋯ Treatment starts with a focus on making the ICU environment conducive to normal sleep. Treating sleep-disordered breathing likely has outcome benefits in TBI. The use of sleep promoting sedative-hypnotics and anxiolytics should be judicious.
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Expert Opin Investig Drugs · Jun 2015
ReviewInvestigational agents for treatment of traumatic brain injury.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. To date, there are no pharmacologic agents proven to improve outcomes from TBI because all the Phase III clinical trials in TBI have failed. Thus, there is a compelling need to develop treatments for TBI. ⋯ TBI elicits both complex degenerative and regenerative tissue responses in the brain. TBI can lead to cognitive, behavioral, and motor deficits. Although numerous promising neuroprotective treatment options have emerged from preclinical studies that mainly target the lesion, translation of preclinical effective neuroprotective drugs to clinical trials has proven challenging. Accumulating evidence indicates that the mammalian brain has a significant, albeit limited, capacity for both structural and functional plasticity, as well as regeneration essential for spontaneous functional recovery after injury. A new therapeutic approach is to stimulate neurovascular remodeling by enhancing angiogenesis, neurogenesis, oligodendrogenesis, and axonal sprouting, which in concert, may improve neurological functional recovery after TBI.
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It is time to stop using the term concussion as it has no clear definition and no pathological meaning. This confusion is increasingly problematic as the management of 'concussed' individuals is a pressing concern. Historically, it has been used to describe patients briefly disabled following a head injury, with the assumption that this was due to a transient disorder of brain function without long-term sequelae. ⋯ Using vague terminology for post-traumatic problems leads to misconceptions and biases in the diagnostic process, producing uninterpretable science, poor clinical guidelines and confused policy. We propose that the term concussion should be avoided. Instead neurologists and other healthcare professionals should classify the severity of traumatic brain injury and then attempt to precisely diagnose the underlying cause of post-traumatic symptoms.