Abstract
Severe pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains one of the leading causes of acquired disability and death in the USA, with the highest combined rates of TBI-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths occurring in the youngest age. While the most effective treatment is preventing trauma in the first place, a large number of patients still present to the emergency rooms and trauma centers, and their outcome is greatly affected by prompt and effective pediatric neurocritical/neurosurgical care. There is an age-at-injury pattern. Falls and motor vehicle collisions are common accidental causes, while abuse in infants and toddlers and assaults in adolescents are unfortunate common non-accidental causes of TBI. Optimal management depends on detection of primary brain injury and preventing or limiting secondary brain injury.
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Heuer, G.G., Kilbaugh, T.J., Huh, J.W. (2017). Acute Head Trauma. In: Mattei, P., Nichol, P., Rollins, II, M., Muratore, C. (eds) Fundamentals of Pediatric Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27443-0_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27443-0_17
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