[Revised guidelines for the treatment of patients with severe traumatic brain injury]

The early assessment and acute treatment of patients with severe traumatic brain injury require a well structured and organized policy. This policy should include rapid transport to, and effective first aid in trauma centres especially equipped for this purpose, adequate communication of information between the (para-)medical workers successively involved and a multidisciplinary handling of diagnostics and treatment of the various traumatic and posttraumatic conditions. This requires the imposition of unequivocal priorities known to all concerned. In this paper, which was written in cooperation with the different medical disciplines concerned, the main features of the acute treatment of severe head injury, about which a wide agreement was reached, are worked out in 18 theses. The guidelines regard the admission and first aid, the diagnostic procedures and the conservative and surgical treatment of patients with severe head injury. These guidelines can be developed in the different hospitals into detailed blueprints for the treatment, in accordance with the local situation.