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ACEP has issued an updated Clinical Policy to provide evidence-based guidelines for management of adult patients presenting to the ED with mild traumatic brain injury based on systematic review of available literature.
Source
Clinical Policy: Critical Issues in Management of Adult Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Ann Emerg Med. 2023 May; 81(5): e63-e105. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2023.01.014.
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This article was a multi-institutional prospective validation of the American Association for Surgery of Trauma (AAST) Brain Injury Guidelines (BIG), which were developed to guide effective resource utilization for traumatic brain injury. The validation study demonstrated that this system was accurate and safe and that its implementation can reduce CT scan utilization and neurosurgical consultation.
Source
Validating the Brain Injury Guidelines: Results of an American Association for the Surgery of Trauma prospective multi-institutional trial. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2022 Aug 1;93(2):157-165. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000003554. Epub 2022 Mar 28.
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Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a deadly condition. Here’s a quick summary of the 40-page AHA/ASA evidence-based guidelines for diagnosis and management.
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In this large, single-institution retrospective review of pediatric blunt trauma patients, no clinically significant injuries (requiring operative intervention) were missed when using multi-detector CT scan as the imaging modality of choice.
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This retrospective study of thirty-three pediatric patients with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) demonstrated no increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) after administration of ketamine.
Source
Acute Effects of Ketamine on Intracranial Pressure in Children with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. Crit Care Med. 2023 Feb 24; e005806 DOI: 10.1097
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Thrombectomy plus usual medical care in patients with a proximal large vessel occlusion (LVO), a large ischemic core, and last known well <24 hours from presentation improves functional outcomes compared to medical care alone.
Source
Trial of Endovascular Thrombectomy for Large Ischemic Strokes. N Engl J Med. 2023 Feb 10. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2214403. Online ahead of print.
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In this large, single-center prospective cohort implementation study, paramedics were able to apply a modified Canadian C-spine rule to assess low risk trauma patients and transport a large proportion of them to a higher level of care without spinal precautions.
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The EZ-IO may be considered as a temporizing measure for trepanation of an epidural hematoma (EDH) in rural ED settings. This should be considered only under the guidance of a skilled neurosurgeon when immediate transportation to a higher level of care is not possible.
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In-hospital mortality of TBI patients decreased linearly as the lowest observed out-of-hospital systolic blood pressure increased, with the lowest mortality between 130 and 180 mmHg.
Source
Optimal Out-of-Hospital Blood Pressure in Major Traumatic Brain Injury: A Challenge to the Current Understanding of Hypotension. Ann Emerg Med. 2022 Jul;80(1):46-59. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2022.01.045. Epub 2022 Mar 24.
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When using multislice CT (MSCT) scanners this study suggests it may be possible to extend the timeframe from headache onset within which aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) can be effectively ruled out with imaging alone. They found that when MSCT was employed within 24 hours of symptom onset, the sensitivity of detecting aSAH remained 100%.
