Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
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Patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their families rely on health care providers, particularly nurses, to provide accurate information, yet inaccurate beliefs about TBI have been found among nurses. Although prior studies have assessed nurses' beliefs about TBI recovery and rehabilitation, none have assessed specific beliefs about the nursing role to care for these patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate nurses' beliefs and learning preferences about caring for patients with moderate-to-severe TBI. ⋯ Latent class analysis was used. Findings showed that nurses had inaccurate beliefs about TBI relating to recovery and the nursing role, and had significant differences in learning preferences. These findings have implications for development of educational and training interventions specific to nurses to ensure that they have factual information about TBI and to clarify the nursing role.
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Athletic neurosurgical emergencies are injuries that can lead to mortality or significant morbidity and require immediate recognition and treatment. This review article discusses the epidemiology of sports-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) with an attempt to quantify the incidence of neurosurgical emergencies in sports. Emergencies such as intracranial hemorrhage, second impact syndrome, vascular injuries, and seizures are discussed. ⋯ The incidence of sports-related TBI presenting to level I or II trauma centers in the USA is about 10 in 100,000 population per year. About 14 % of the adult sports-related TBIs and 13 % of the pediatric sports-related TBIs were moderate or severe in nature. Patients presenting with headache and neck pain should prompt further investigation for cervical spine and vascular injuries. CT angiography is becoming the modality of choice to screen for blunt cerebrovascular injuries. The treatment of these injuries remains controversial. High-quality evidence in sports-related TBI is lacking. Further research is required to help guide management of this increasingly prevalent condition. The role of prevention and education should also not be underestimated.
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J Int Neuropsychol Soc · Sep 2016
Predictors of Post-concussive Symptoms in Young Children: Injury versus Non-injury Related Factors.
A notable minority of children will experience persistent post-concussive symptoms (PCS) following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), likely maintained by a combination of injury and non-injury related factors. Adopting a prospective longitudinal design, this study aimed to investigate the relative influence of child, family, and injury factors on both acute and persistent PCS in young children. ⋯ Injury characteristics were significantly associated with PCS for 3 months following mTBI but the association weakened over time. On the other hand, pre-existing child and family factors displayed an increasingly strong association with PCS over time. Follow-up for these "at-risk" children which also addresses family stress may minimize longer-term complications. (JINS, 2016, 22, 793-803).
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Air medical journal · Sep 2016
The Effect of Prehospital Intubation on Treatment Times in Patients With Suspected Traumatic Brain Injury.
This study examines whether, in patients requiring intubation with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), prehospital intubation compared with emergency department intubation leads to a reduction in treatment times and time to a computed tomographic (CT) scan. ⋯ Patients intubated in the prehospital setting spend a longer time at the scene but a shorter amount of time in the emergency department before brain imaging. Prehospital intubation may lead to earlier control of airway and ventilation. The minority of intubated TBI patients required urgent neurosurgical intervention. Overall prehospital intubation shows no significant survival advantage for the patients when compared with emergency department intubation.
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To determine if changes in cortical alpha-band power in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are associated with the severity of their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and if injury severity and level of exposure to psychologically traumatic events are predictors of these electrophysiological changes. ⋯ Our findings will guide future studies addressing the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying a higher incidence of PTSD in patients with mTBI.