Traumatic Brain Injury is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, especially in children and young adults. Causes include falls, vehicle accidents, and violence
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when an outside force traumatically injures the brain. TBI can be classified based on severity, mechanism (closed or penetrating head injury), or other features (e.g. occurring in a specific location or over a widespread area). Head injury usually refers to TBI, but is a broader category because it can involve damage to structures other than the brain, such as the scalp and skull.
Brain trauma can be caused by a direct impact or by acceleration alone. In addition to the damage caused at the moment of injury, brain trauma causes secondary injury, a variety of events that take place in the minutes and days following the injury. These processes, which include alterations in cerebral blood flow and the pressure within the skull, contribute substantially to the damage from the initial injury.
EEG Brain Monitoring is used to identify impending secondary brain injury in time to control and reverse it
- Seizure activity is observed in approximately 40% of trauma patients;
- Status epilepticus may reach 20-25% of mortality rate, the longer the seizure activity persists, the more difficult it is to treat, and the higher the rate for mortality, raising from 3 to 36% if SE lasts more than one hour and reaching 50% when this time exceeds 3 hours;
- Prolonged non-convulsive Status Epilepticus is more difficult to treat than convulsive Status Epilepticus, hence the importance for immediate detection;
- When Status Epilepticus complicates acute ischemia stroke, mortality is 3 times as high as stroke without Status Epilepticus;
- Detection of sub-clinical seizures, Spasm assessment, Therapy assessment;
- Monitor anti-convulsive drugs efficacy and need for therapy adjustment
