Traumatic Brain Injury in Childhood

Ryu, Myong Sun; Lee, Keon Su

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to investigate the traumatic brain injury(TBI) in childhood and to identify factors related with its prognosis.
METHODS
The medical records of 256 children with traumatic brain injury were analyzed retrospectively, who were treated in Chungnam National University Hospital for more than 6 years from January, 1998 to December, 2003. Outcomes were classified by age, sex, cause, Glasgow Coma Scale(GCS), Glasgow Outcome Scale(GOS), sequelae and so forth.
RESULTS
A total of 256 patients were identified. The male to female ratio was 1.9:1. The main cause of TBI was traffic accidents(67.1%), followed by falls(25.8%). The outcomes of TBI were determined by GOS, in which death occurred in 16 cases(6.2%), severe disabilities in 11 cases(4.3%), moderate disabilities in 24 cases(9.4%), and good recoveries in 205 cases(80.1%). Poor prognostic factors were low GCS, post-traumatic early seizure, high blood glucose levels and abnormal pupil reflexes(P<0.05). The sequelae of TBI were quadriparesis(3.5%), learning disability(3%), mental retardation(2.3%), hemiparesis(1.6%) and others.
CONCLUSION
This study suggest that it is possible to predict poor outcomes of TBI children by assessing the clinical manifestations. A long term follow-up of seizures and other sequelae is essential to TBI children who have poor prognosis.