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[Prognosis of childhood brain injuries in relation to acute post-traumatic syndrome]
Insights
Pediatric traumatic brain injuries can lead to long-term neurological disorders, particularly seizures, with younger children facing worse outcomes. Early convulsions increase the risk of developing these persistent, debilitating post-traumatic conditions.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Neurotraumatology
- Developmental Psychology
Context:
- Long-term follow-up of 196 children with severe and moderately severe cerebral traumata.
- Investigating the natural history and long-term sequelae of childhood brain injuries.
- Established view of positive disease development in childhood neurological disorders.
Purpose:
- To analyze the long-term outcomes of pediatric traumatic brain injuries.
- To identify risk factors for developing post-traumatic seizures and other neurological deficits.
- To assess the impact of age at injury and injury severity on prognosis.
Summary:
- Neurological disorders following childhood brain injury typically show positive development, but seizures often manifest within a year.
- Younger children and those with initial convulsions face a higher risk of developing persistent post-traumatic seizures.
- Age at injury and trauma severity significantly influence prognosis for personality, intelligence, and scholastic achievement, with younger children and severe injuries having worse outcomes.
- A post-traumatic seizure disorder tends to negatively impact the overall prognosis.
Impact:
- Informs clinical management and prognosis for children with traumatic brain injuries.
- Highlights the critical role of age and initial injury characteristics in long-term neurological outcomes.
- Underscores the need for early intervention and long-term monitoring for pediatric TBI survivors, especially those with convulsive phenomena.
Abstract:
Long-time follow-up examinations of 196 children, who had been suffering from severe and moderately severe cerebral traumata, gave abundant proof of the view that neurological disorders occurring at the age of childhood are characterized by a positive development of the disease, a view that is held by all authors. Cerebral ailments characterized by attacks usually manifest themselves within one year after the accident. The younger the children at the time of accident, the higher the number of posttraumatic diseases characterized by attacks. Children with convulsive phenomena in the acute posttraumatic phase usually show a greater tendency toward later diseases characterized by attacks. Every fourth child with initial convulsions and every seventh child without such an early symptomatology suffered from attacks in the further course of disease. Four out of 32 children were, in spite of careful treatment, not free from attacks after 10 years from the accident. The younger a child is at the time of accident the more unfavorable is the prognosis as regards personality development, intelligence, and scholastic records. Also, there is a clear dependence upon the severity of the cerebral trauma. Most pronounced permanent handicaps were observed in young children with severe cerebral traumata. A posttraumatic ailment characterized by attacks tends to worsen any prognosis.