Integrated Health Care Management of Moderate to Severe TBI in Older Patients-A Narrative Review

Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury in Adult Population: The Latin American Brain Injury Consortium Consensus for Definition and Categorization

Moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a diagnosis that describes diverse patients with heterogeneity of primary injuries. Defined by a Glasgow Coma Scale between 9 and 12, this category includes patients who may neurologically worsen and require increasing intensive care resources and/or emergency neurosurgery. Despite the unique characteristics of these patients, there have not been specific guidelines published before this effort to support decision-making in these patients. A Delphi consensus group from the Latin American Brain Injury Consortium was established to generate recommendations related to the definition and categorization of moderate TBI. Before an in-person meeting, a systematic review of the literature was performed identifying evidence relevant to planned topics. Blinded voting assessed support for each recommendation. A priori the threshold for consensus was set at 80% agreement. Nine PICOT questions were generated by the panel, including definition, categorization, grouping, and diagnosis of moderate TBI. Here, we report the results of our work including relevant consensus statements and discussion for each question. Moderate TBI is an entity for which there is little published evidence available supporting definition, diagnosis, and management. Recommendations based on experts' opinion were informed by available evidence and aim to refine the definition and categorization of moderate TBI. Further studies evaluating the impact of these recommendations will be required.

The Outcome of Neurorehabilitation Efficacy and Management of Traumatic Brain Injury

For public health professionals, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its possible protracted repercussions are a significant source of worry. In opposed to patient neurorehabilitation with developed brain abnormalities of different etiologies, neurorehabilitation of affected persons has several distinct features. The clinical repercussions of the various types of TBI injuries will be discussed in detail in this paper. During severe TBI, the medical course frequently follows a familiar first sequence of coma, accompanied by disordered awareness, followed by agitation and forgetfulness, followed by return of function. Clinicians must be aware of common medical issues that might occur throughout the various stages of neurorehabilitation, for example, posttraumatic hydrocephalus, paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity and posttraumatic neuroendocrine disorders, at each step of the process. Furthermore, we address problems about the scheduling of various rehabilitation programs as well as the availability of current data for comprehensive rehabilitative neuropsychology techniques.

Multiple Organ Dysfunction in Older Major Trauma Critical Care Patients: A Multicenter Prospective Observational Study

The objective was to explore the characteristics and outcomes of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in older trauma patients.

Background

Severely injured older people present an increasing challenge for trauma systems. Recovery for those who require critical care may be complicated by MODS. In older trauma patients, MODS may not be predictable based on chronological age alone and factors associated with its development and resolution are unclear.

Methods

Consecutive adult patients (aged ≥16 years) admitted to 4 level 1 major trauma center critical care units were enrolled and reviewed daily until discharge or death. MODS was defined by a daily total sequential organ failure assessment score of >5.

Results

One thousand three hundred sixteen patients were enrolled over 18 months and one-third (434) were aged ≥65 years. Incidence of MODS was high for both age groups (<65 years: 64%, ≥65 years: 70%). There were few differences in severity, patterns, and duration of MODS between cohorts, except for older traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients who experienced a prolonged course of MODS recovery (TBI: 9 days vs no TBI: 5 days, P < 0.01). Frailty rather than chronological age had a strong association with MODS development (odds ratio [OR], 6.9; 95% confidence intervals [CI], 3.0-12.4; P < 0.001) and MODS mortality (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.31-3.38; P = 0.02). Critical care resource utilization was not increased in older patients, but MODS had a substantial impact on mortality (<65 years: 17%; ≥65 years: 28%). The majority of older patients who did not develop MODS survived and had favorable discharge outcomes (home discharge ≥65 years NoMODS: 50% vs MODS: 15%; P < 0.01).

Conclusions

Frailty rather than chronological age appears to drive MODS development, recovery, and outcome in older cohorts. Early identification of frailty after trauma may help to predict MODS and plan care in older trauma.

Inflammation and the role of infection: Complications and treatment options following neurotrauma

Traumatic brain injury can have devastating consequences for patients and extended hospital stays and recovery course. Recent data indicate that the initial insult causes profound changes to the immune system and leads to a pro-inflammatory state. This alteration in homeostasis predisposes patients to an increased risk of infection and underlying autoimmune conditions. Increased emphasis has been placed on understanding this process both in the clinical and preclinical literature. This review highlights the intrinsic inflammatory conditions that can occur within the initial hospital stay, discusses long-term immune consequences, highlights emerging treatment options, and delves into important pathways currently being investigated with preclinical models.

Social Determinants of Health in Physiatry: Challenges and Opportunities for Clinical Decision Making and Improving Treatment Precision

Physiatry is a medical specialty focused on improving functional outcomes in patients with a variety of medical conditions that affect the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons. Social determinants of health (SDH) play a key role in determining therapeutic process and patient functional outcomes. Big data and precision medicine have been used in other fields and to some extent in physiatry to predict patient outcomes, however many challenges remain. The interplay between SDH and physiatry outcomes is highly variable depending on different phases of care, and more favorable patient profiles in acute care may be less favorable in the outpatient setting. Furthermore, SDH influence which treatments or interventional procedures are accessible to the patient and thus determine outcomes. This opinion paper describes utility of existing datasets in combination with novel data such as movement, gait patterning and patient perceived outcomes could be analyzed with artificial intelligence methods to determine the best treatment plan for individual patients in order to achieve maximal functional capacity.

Incidence, causes and consequences of moderate and severe traumatic brain injury as determined by Abbreviated Injury Score in the Netherlands

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability. Epidemiology seems to be changing. TBIs are increasingly caused by falls amongst elderly, whilst we see less polytrauma due to road traffic accidents (RTA). Data on epidemiology is essential to target prevention strategies. A nationwide retrospective cohort study was conducted. The Dutch National Trauma Database was used to identify all patients over 17 years old who were admitted to a hospital with moderate and severe TBI (AIS ≥ 3) in the Netherlands from January 2015 until December 2017. Subgroup analyses were done for the elderly and polytrauma patients. 12,295 patients were included in this study. The incidence of moderate and severe TBI was 30/100.000 person-years, 13% of whom died. Median age was 65 years and falls were the most common trauma mechanism, followed by RTAs. Amongst elderly, RTAs consisted mostly of bicycle accidents. Mortality rates were higher for elderly (18%) and polytrauma patients (24%). In this national database more elderly patients who most often sustained the injury due to a fall or an RTA were seen. Bicycle accidents were very frequent, suggesting prevention could be an important aspect in order to decrease morbidity and mortality.

Antimicrobial immunity impedes CNS vascular repair following brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cerebrovascular injury are leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide. Systemic infections often accompany these disorders and can worsen outcomes. Recovery after brain injury depends on innate immunity, but the effect of infections on this process is not well understood. Here, we demonstrate that systemically introduced microorganisms and microbial products interfered with meningeal vascular repair after TBI in a type I interferon (IFN-I)-dependent manner, with sequential infections promoting chronic disrepair. Mechanistically, we discovered that MDA5-dependent detection of an arenavirus encountered after TBI disrupted pro-angiogenic myeloid cell programming via induction of IFN-I signaling. Systemic viral infection similarly blocked restorative angiogenesis in the brain parenchyma after intracranial hemorrhage, leading to chronic IFN-I signaling, blood-brain barrier leakage and a failure to restore cognitive-motor function. Our findings reveal a common immunological mechanism by which systemic infections deviate reparative programming after central nervous system injury and offer a new therapeutic target to improve recovery.

Challenges in the PREHOSPITAL emergency management of geriatric trauma patients - a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Despite a widely acknowledged increase in older people presenting with traumatic injury in western populations there remains a lack of research into the optimal prehospital management of this vulnerable patient group. Research into this cohort faces many uniqu1e challenges, such as inconsistent definitions, variable physiology, non-linear presentation and multi-morbidity. This scoping review sought to summarise the main challenges in providing prehospital care to older trauma patients to improve the care for this vulnerable group.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

A scoping review was performed searching Google Scholar, PubMed and Medline from 2000 until 2020 for literature in English addressing the management of older trauma patients in both the prehospital arena and Emergency Department. A thematic analysis and narrative synthesis was conducted on the included 131 studies. Age-threshold was confirmed by a descriptive analysis from all included studies. The majority of the studies assessed triage and found that recognition and undertriage presented a significant challenge, with adverse effects on mortality. We identified six key challenges in the prehospital field that were summarised in this review.

CONCLUSIONS

Trauma in older people is common and challenges prehospital care providers in numerous ways that are difficult to address. Undertriage and the potential for age bias remain prevalent. In this Scoping Review, we identified and discussed six major challenges that are unique to the prehospital environment. More high-quality evidence is needed to investigate this issue further.

Neurorehabilitation of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): A Clinical Review

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its potential long-term consequences are of major concern for public health. Neurorehabilitation of affected individuals has some specific characteristics in contrast to neurorehabilitation of patients with acquired brain lesions of other aetiology. This review will deal with the clinical consequences of the distinct lesions of TBI. In severe TBI, clinical course often follows a typical initial sequence of coma; followed by disturbed consciousness; later, post-traumatic agitation and amnesia; and finally, recovery of function occurs. In the different phases of neurorehabilitation, physicians should be aware of typical medical complications such as paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity, posttraumatic hydrocephalus, and posttraumatic neuroendocrine dysfunctions. Furthermore, we address questions on timing and on existing evidence for different rehabilitation programmes and for holistic neuropsychological rehabilitation approaches.