Sequelae of minor head injury: The natural history of post-concussive symptoms and their relationship to loss of consciousness and follow-up

Abstract

The character and natural history of postconcussive symptoms were studied in two subject groups: patients admitted to hospital for observation following brief loss of consciousness (LOC) as a result of head injury and patients who attended the accident unit after head injury but not were not admitted. Follow-up data were obtained from the hospitalized group at standardized out-patient interview and from the non-hospitalized group by postal questionnaire. Two- and 12-week data are presented on 24 hospitalized and 58 non-hospitalized patients. The type and frequency of symptoms was similar in the two groups and rank ordering was significantly correlated. However, the reduction in symptom scores (number of symptoms) 12 weeks post-injury was significantly greater in the hospitalized than the non-hospitalized group. The possible significance of this is discussed.