Current best practices for TBIs may not be effective

New Jersey residents who have had traumatic brain injuries may already know that the road to recovery may be long and difficult. Although the ability to treat these dramatic injuries has improved remarkably in recent years, in some ways medical science is just coming to grips with its limits.

For example, the current practices for treatment of TBIs do not appear to work properly. Even if they are effective in some ways, they do not make a clear enough improvement in the outcome to be easily detectible by surveys and studies. In the two decades since the introduction of the Brain Trauma Foundation’s guidelines for brain injury intervention and amelioration, research has been conducted on medical facilities that follow their rules and those that do not. The Los Angeles County Trauma Consortium surveyed more than 750 patients and found no evidence that compliance with the guidelines improved patient outcome.

The Brain Trauma Foundation’s document focused on two specific types of intervention for a traumatic brain injury. They set out specific criteria under which two types of deeply invasive surgery, craniotomy and intracranial pressure monitoring, should be carried out. However, a large number of the hospitals studied did not and perform these surgeries when the guidelines said they should. Moreover, following the guidelines did not seem to create clear improvements in patient health.

These types of injuries often result from sports activities or a fall, but they are sometimes are caused by the negligent act of another, such as in an automobile accident. A TBI victim may wish to speak with a personal injury attorney to determine if there are any remedies available for seeking damages from the responsible party.

Source: News Medical, “Compliance with guidelines for treating traumatic brain injury doesn’t necessarily translate into better results”, July 30, 2015