Severe traumatic brain injury

Although adherence to traumatic brain injury (TBI) guidelines has been associated with improved patient outcomes, guideline adherence remains suboptimal in practice. With neurologists becoming increasingly involved in specialized neurointensive care units and in the care of patients with severe TBI, familiarization with these guidelines is essential.

Intracranial monitoring of different physiologic variables has increased in the past few years. Intracranial pressure (ICP)-driven therapy has been replaced by ICP-cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP)-driven therapy. More recently, the importance of brain oxygen optimization in addition to ICP-CPP has been recognized, and clinical trials are underway to study the effect of this approach. Surgical management of patients with TBI is also evolving rapidly with further studies on decompressive craniectomy. These are significant advances to improve TBI outcomes.

This article summarizes the routine monitoring of patients with severe TBI and offers insight into some novel physiologic monitoring devices available. The guidelines for management of patients with severe TBI are summarized along with outcome measures.