J Neurointensive Care.  2021 Apr;4(1):6-12. 10.32587/jnic.2020.00325.

Characteristics of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients in Korean Military Hospitals During Non-War Years

• Kim SH
• Kim JH

• KMID: 2555044
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.32587/jnic.2020.00325

Abstract

Objective
Because of the specialty of the military medical system, there might be different characteristics of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) comparing to the patients in university hospitals. However, the characteristics of the soldiers’ TBI has never been reported. Therefore, we tried to identify the different characteristics of TBI patients in military hospitals by comparing them of other hospitals.
Methods
We extracted the data of TBI patients from the databank of the Korean Multicenter TBI study. Patients, who were diagnosed with TBI and admitted to the ten institutions (including two military hospitals) between January 2016 and December 2018, were retrospectively enrolled. They are divided into ‘Military’ and ‘Other’ groups according to the admitted hospitals, and statistical comparisons were conducted on gathered information.
Results
Among 4601 enrolled patients, 133 patients were from two military hospitals and 4468 patients belong to the eight university hospitals. Military patients show significant younger age and male predominance. In general, they have fewer past histories and different trauma mechanisms - more sports-related and lesser traffic accident-related. They usually show higher initial Glasgow coma scale scores and better favorable outcomes - lower incidence of neurologic deterioration in mild TBIs and better modified Rankin Scale scores in moderate to severe TBIs.
Conclusions
Military hospitals usually take care of small numbers of patients who are young males with mild TBIs. Because of the different characteristics of group members and traumatic severity, the patients usually show favorable outcomes. Therefore, the optimized medical system is mandatory.

Keyword

Military; Mild traumatic brain injury; Traumatic brain injury; Young male