Head Injury

Head injury is a major health problem in all communities. Mortality statistics reflect only a small part of the total community burden of suffering and economic loss. The outcome for patients with severe head injuries has improved in recent years due to a number of factors. Better organization of services has led to effective early resuscitation and transfer to trauma centres. CT scanning, more widely available, allows early diagnosis and evacuation of blood clots. The hour-by-hour monitoring of patients has been rendered more reliable by the Glasgow Coma Score. None-the-less, the mortality and morbidity for patients who are in coma 24 hours after head injury remains high, and it is this group which forms the subject of the present book. It sets out to analyse the pathophysiology of severe head injury and the currently available methods of treatment.



The book is aimed at those specialists who are involved in the acute management of patients with severe head injury from the time of retrieval at the accident site to the transfer to a neurosurgical unit and management in the high-dependency unit.