Predicting outcome after traumatic brain injury

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to look at the most recent work carried out on predicting outcome after traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI is a leading cause of death and disability but prediction of long-term outcome for individual patients is difficult. In particular, predicting outcome in the first few hours or days after injury is limited by the paucity of scoring systems or clinical models available. Many clinical variables have been studied to determine if they may play a role in outcome prediction, including age, admission Glasgow Coma Score and papillary reactivity. Newer variables being studied include serum biomarkers, abnormalities seen on magnetic resonance imaging and data obtained from evoked potentials and electroencephalography studies. There are many factors that impact on outcome and a perfect model is yet to be developed. Models must take into account the economic status of the country in which the trauma occurs. It is important that less affluent nations are not left behind in the search for accurate prognostic modeling. © The Intensive Care Society 2011.