Traumatic brain injury: risk factors and prognostic assessment

Excerpt

Neurologists are frequently only involved in a peripheral fashion in the acute management of traumatic brain injury, with opinions largely sought for prognosis, particularly in the early stages and often while the patient is still in intensive care. However, this group of patients subsequently comprises a significant workload both during the neurorehabilitation phase because of more subtle long-term sequelae of head injury, often overlooked during the immediate recovery phase but which commonly have profound psychosocial consequences. Traumatic brain injury is therefore a common and important problem for neurological services, although there are many aspects of management that continue to be poorly understood. …