Albumin Resuscitation for Traumatic Brain Injury: Is Intracranial Hypertension the Cause of Increased Mortality?

Abstract

Mortality is higher in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) resuscitated with albumin compared with saline, but the mechanism for increased mortality is unknown. In patients from the Saline vs. Albumin Fluid Evaluation (SAFE) study with TBI who underwent intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring, interventional data were collected from randomization to day 14 to determine changes in ICP (primary outcome) and in therapies used to treat increased ICP. Pattern mixture modelling, designed to address informative…