Traumatic brain injury more common than thought

Head injuries of all types have taken on new interest and importance. Researchers are becoming more aware of the long-term effects of head injury, but little attention has been given to the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in all age groups, including males and females, taking into account all types of events leading to the injury. Mayo Clinic has put into effect a refined system for classifying injuries caused by force to the head and has discovered the TBI is a lot more common than estimated.

“Even mild traumatic brain injuries can affect sensory-motor functions, thinking and awareness, and communication,” say study author Allen Brown, MD, director of brain rehabilitation research at Mayo Clinic. “In assessing frequency, we have likely been missing a lot of cases. This is the first population-based analysis to determine prevalence along the whole spectrum of these injuries.”

New categories label patients with “definite”, “probable”, and “possible” TBIs. This provides a way to incorporate all types of symptoms including brief unconsciousness or a simple complaint of dissiness or nausea. Researchers believe that TBI is occurring in as many as 558 of 100,000 which is quite different from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s estimate of 341 per 100,000. As many as 60% of injuries fell outside the CDC’s standard categorization even though two-thirds showed distinct symptoms. Researchers found that the elderly and the very young were most at-risk for being overlooked for TBI.

“With more complete assessment of frequency, we’ll have better tools to develop prevention programs optimize treatments, understand cost-effectiveness of care and predict outcomes for patients,” said Dr. Brown.

Source: Epidemiology, ScienceDaily

photo by Niicolás Celaya