Outcome of head injury in unknown patients at Level-1 apex trauma centre

Abstract

This was a retrospective study, carried out at the Department of Neurosurgery at Jai Prakash Narain Apex Trauma Centre (JPNATC), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. Many patients with head injury whose identity cannot be ascertained, are admitted in our hospital. Care and management of these neglected patients from pre-hospital till discharge, rehabilitation or death is fraught with many challenges. Very few studies in world literature are available on this subgroup of patients. We analyzed data pertaining to 70 consecutive patients at our hospital. Out of 70 patients, 68 (97%) were male, most were in the age group of 21?30 years 25 (36%). The mean age was 33.7? 14.6 years (range 5?70 yrs). Mean duration of hospital stay was 27.9?52.2 days (range 2?368 days). Principal cause of head injury was road traffic accident seen in 47 patients (67%). Majority of the patients had Glasgow coma scale less than 8 on admission. Forty three patients were treated conservatively and 20 patients needed surgery. Ten patients 10 (14%) died in hospital, 7 (10%) patients had good recovery. During the course of treatment identity of 51 (73%) patients could be established and they were either discharged to home 42 (60%) or referred to their 9 (12%) district hospital. Nine patients(12%) remained unknown and on recovery were sent to destitute homes for rehabilitation.

Serum Concentration of Myelin Basic Protein as a Prognostic Marker in Mild-to-moderate Head Injury Patients: A Prospective Study in a Tertiary Care Center

“…RTA constitutes the main cause of TBI, possibly because of urbanization and industrialization; moreover, youngsters take pride in living a high adrenaline rush life, driving rash and fast. The data was consistent with studies done in the past by Saxena et al 11 and Nath et al 10 TBI is more difficult to assess. The clinical examination is of restricted value during the first hours and days after a head injury.…”

“…TBI poses the substantial burden of disability and death occurring in low-and middle-income countries. In studies by Gururaj et al 9 and Nath et al, 10 the majority of TBI patients were in their 3rd decade with a male preponderance; likewise in our study, we had a male:female ratio of 1.9:1 and maximum patients in their 3rd decade. RTA constitutes the main cause of TBI, possibly because of urbanization and industrialization; moreover, youngsters take pride in living a high adrenaline rush life, driving rash and fast.…”

“…TBI poses the substantial burden of disability and death occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In studies by Gururaj et al 9 and Nath et al, 10 the majority of TBI patients were in their 3rd decade with a male preponderance; likewise in our study, we had a male:female ratio of 1.9:1 and maximum patients in their 3rd decade.…”

Outcome of traumatic head injury in unknown patients

“…11 Ahmad FU et al also showed majority of patients were in between 25 to 40 years of age group. The above fact is also evident in present study as majority of victims are males (94.38%) with mean age of 29.89 years.…”

Patterns and Outcomes of Patients with Penetrating Head Injury

“…This signifies severity of the injury at the time of presentation. Poor GCS score is associated with worse prognosis (15) . Also in this study, the pupils were unreactive in 29 cases (46.1%) and were reactive in 34 cases (53.9%).…”