Severe brain injuries in Northern Sweden: a prospective 2-year study

• Main Authors: M Stenberg, L Koskinen, R Levi, B Stålnacke
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1089.3364; http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A664557/FULLTEXT01.pdf

months with RLAS-R and Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE). Results: A total of 37 patients were included. Hospital deaths within 3 months post-injury occurred in 5 patients. After 3 months the RLAS-R scores were significantly improved (p < 0.001). Eight patients had both "superior cognitive functioning" on the RLAS-R and "favourable outcome" on the GOSE. Thirty-four patients (92%) were directly admitted to the NC. By contrast, after discharge patients were transferred back to one of several county hospitals or to one of several local hospitals, and some had multiple transfers between different hospitals and departments. Conclusion: Overall outcomes were surprisingly good in this group of severely injured patients. The routines for transferring patients with severe traumatic brain injury from a geographically large, sparsely populated region to a regional NC to receive well-monitored neurosurgical care seem to work very well. The post-acute clinical pathways are less clearly reflecting an optimized medical and rehabilitative strategy.