Prehospital Care in Traumatic Brain Injury: Factors Affecting Patient's Outcome

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of deaths worldwide. The morbidity and mortality due to TBI are related to both primary as well as secondary insults. The patients who survive from the primary insults, some may still have long-term disabilities. Most of these outcomes are related to the high incidence of prehospital secondary brain insults. Knowledge of these variables and timely management of the disease at the prehospital level can significantly improve the outcome and decrease the mortality. AIMS: The present study is aimed to evaluate the current status of prehospital care, prehospital factors, epidemiological characteristics, and outcome of TBI patients at a Level 1 trauma center. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It is a prospective observational study of 830 cases of TBI, done from November 15, 2015, to March 15, 2016, in the Department of Neurosurgery, Institute of Traumatology, SMS Medical College, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. RESULTS: Analysis of data revealed that the incidence of TBI in males is four times higher than females. Most patients are in the age group of 21–30 years (30.24%) followed by 31–40 years (18.55%). Road traffic injury (69.52%) is the most common mode of injury in the age group of 21–30 years followed by injury due to fall (22.77%) which mostly affects the age group of 0–10 years (72.64%) and 61–70 years (38.6%). Analysis of different factors revealed that age is significantly correlated with the outcome having P = 0.016. Glasgow Coma Scale, saturation of peripheral oxygen, systolic blood pressure at admission are also significantly correlated with the outcome having P < 0.001, P < 0.001, and P < 0.001, respectively. CONCLUSION: It is evident from the study that the factors which affect the outcome of a TBI are influenced by prehospital care, and thus prehospital management of the TBIs can definitely improve the outcomes.