Content - Volume 45, Issue 8

Foreword

Foreword

Objective: To describe innovations in neurocritical care originating from university hospitals in southern Scandinavia over a period of 50 years. Discussion: Several techniques and strategies that are now included in clinical routine were initially developed in southern Scandinavia: continuous recording of intracranial pressure, monitoring of cerebral blood flow, analyses of cerebral energy meta ...

Objective: A study published in 2000 on the acute clinical management of mild traumatic brain injuries in Sweden showed that these patients were routinely admitted to hospital for observation. This study aims to compare current clinical management of mild traumatic brain injury with clinical practice a decade ago. Design: Questionnaire to senior residents in all emergency departments in Sw ...

Objective: To explore brain pathology after mild traumatic brain injury by repeated magnetic resonance examination. Design: A prospective follow-up study. Subjects: Nineteen patients with mild traumatic brain injury presenting with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) 14–15. Methods: The patients were examined on day 2 or 3 and 3–7 months after the injury. The magnetic resonance protocol comprised c ...

Objective: To assess motor proficiency and movement disorders in children with mild traumatic brain injury compared with an uninjured control group. Inclusion criteria were based on the definitions issued by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Subjects: A group of 27 children with mild traumatic brain injury (age range 4–17 years) and a control group of 79 healthy children. Met ...

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of age on mortality and 3-month outcome in a Norwegian cohort of patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: Norwegian residents ≥ 16 years of age who were admitted with a severe TBI to the country’s 4 major trauma centres in 2009 and 2010 were included, as were adults (16– 64 years) and elderly patients ...

Background: Very severe traumatic brain injury may cause disorders of consciousness in the form of coma, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (also known as vegetative state) or minimally conscious state. Previous studies of outcome for these patients largely pre-date the 2002 definition of minimally conscious state. Objectives: To establish the numbers of patients with disorder of consciousness at ...

Objective: To investigate sex differences in symptoms, structure of symptoms, disability and life satisfaction 3 years after mild traumatic brain injury. Secondary aims were to find risk factors for adverse outcome. Design: Population-based cohort study. Patients: The cohort comprised 137,000 inhabitants at risk in a defined population served by a single hospital in northern Sweden. Patients a ...

Objective: To characterize the long-term consequences of mild traumatic brain injury regarding post-concussion symptoms, post-traumatic stress, and quality of life; and to investigate differences between men and women. Design: Retrospective mixed-methods study. Subjects/patients and methods: Of 214 patients with mild traumatic brain injury seeking acute care, 163 answered questionnaires concer ...

Objective: The aim of this work was to explore the extent to which social, cognitive, emotional and physical aspects influence participation after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design/subjects: An explorative study of the patient perspective of participation 4 years after TBI. The cohort consisted of all patients (age range 18–65 years), presenting in 1999–2000, admitted to the hospital (n ...

Objective: To describe fatigue and its relationship to cognition, psychosocial adjustment, quality of life (QoL), work status and relative’s experiences 12 months after suspected traumatic axonal injury (TAI). Methods: Eighteen patients were assessed with the Daily Fatigue Impact Scale (D-FIS), the Barrow Neurological Institute Screen for Higher Cerebral Functions (BNIS), the European Question ...

Objective: To examine cognitive activity limitations and predictors of outcome 1 year post-trauma in patients admitted to sub-acute rehabilitation after severe traumatic brain injury. Subjects: The study included 119 patients with severe traumatic brain injury admitted to centralized sub-acute rehabilitation in the Eastern part of Denmark during a 5-year period from 2005 to 2009. Methods: Leve ...

Objective: To assess health-related quality of life in individuals with severe traumatic brain injury at 12 months post-injury, applying the Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) instrument, and to study the relationship between injury-related factors, post-injury functioning and health-related quality of life. Design/subjects: The study is part of a prospective, Norwegian multicentre stu ...

To assess: (i) the clinical characteristics and injury descriptors of patients with severe traumatic brain injury in Northern Sweden admitted to the single Neurotrauma Center (NC) serving this region; (ii) the care pathway of patients from injury to 3 months after discharge from the NC; and (iii) the outcomes at 3 months post-injury. Population-based prospective 2-year cohort study. Patients a ...

Objectives: To describe employment outcomes and assess the impact of personal and environmental factors on employment outcomes 2 years after moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury. Design/subjects: A prospective cohort of 100 patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury, aged 16–55 years, hospitalized in a Trauma Referral Centre during the period 2005–2007 and followed up at 1 ...

Objective: To determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms among individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to identify predictors of depressive symptoms and psychological distress. Design: A longitudinal study with assessments at 3 months, 1 year and 5 years after injury. Subjects: A total of 118 individuals (29% females; mean age 32. 5; range 16–55 years) with mild-to-severe TBI ...

Objective: To describe the impaired fine-motor skills in patients with traumatic brain injury acquired in childhood. Design: A total of 165 patients with traumatic brain injury, aged 0–17 years, injured during the period 1987–1991, were identified. Fifteen years post-injury a questionnaire was sent to the patients. Twenty-six of the subjects had upper limb problems, 15 of whom agreed to part ...

Objective: To investigate clinically significant change in the emotional condition of relatives of patients with severe traumatic brain injury during sub-acute rehabilitation. Methods: Participants were 62 pairs of relatives and patients. Relatives completed the anxiety and depression scales from the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) when the patients were admitted to sub-acute rehabilitation an ...

This pilot study investigated the effects of acute neuropsychological intervention for relatives of patients with severe brain injury. Participants were enrolled in an intervention group comprising 39 relatives, and a control group comprising 47 relatives. The intervention consisted of supportive and psycho-educational sessions with a neuropsychologist in the acute care setting. The intervention ...

Objective: To evaluate health-related quality of life of traumatic brain injury patients who have received intensive multidisciplinary residential rehabilitation. To examine the psychometric characteristics of the Finnish Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) questionnaire. Subjects: A total of 157 adults with TBI, up to 15 years post-injury, who had been treated in the Käpylä Rehabilit ...