Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a challenging disease process, both to treat and investigate. Broadly speaking, TBI consists of structural injuries or physiologic changes in brain function secondary to external forces. Such injuries may result in cell death, gliotic scar formation, and/or damage from reactive oxygen species and inflammation.
Prior TBI population studies revealed that the prevalence of TBI in adults over 18 was 8.5%. In 2010, 2.5 million emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths were associated with TBI with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting that TBI was related to 30% of mortalities. Pediatric TBI, while largely understudied, is also an important concern, as it can reach an annual incidence of 100,000–200,000 with children between the ages of 0 and 4 years having the highest percentage of incidence and mortality., The economic impact of brain injury is difficult to determine when considering compensation for work loss, quality of life, rehabilitation, and home services in addition to medical costs. Nonetheless, estimates of total lifetime costs range from $147 billion for fatal TBI to $18 billion for nonhospitalized TBI.
Although brain injuries are a significant portion of trauma, the severity of TBI ranges from mild, defined as a momentary change in consciousness, to severe, which involves sustained periods of unconsciousness and/or amnesia. Fortunately, more than 85% of TBI that is medically treated is considered mild and most patients are able to recover from their injuries.
© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.