http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7402/1283-b

BMJ  2003;326:1283 (14 June)
 

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Collections under which this article appears: Neurosurgery Injury Neurological injury Children

News

Experts issue guidelines for treating childhood brain injury

Janice Hopkins Tanne

New York

Good treatment of brain injuries sustained by children can make the difference between full recovery and lifelong disability or death. Now the first guidelines for the best treatment of brain injury have been issued by a team of US experts.

The guidelines say that children with severe brain injury are more likely to survive in a paediatric trauma centre or in an adult trauma centre that is also qualified to care for children. The child's cardiovascular and respiratory systems must be stabilised in the field, during transfer, and in the hospital. Doctors should make sure that the child's oxygen level and blood pressure do not fall too low.

However, children must also be monitored for swelling of the brain, which is common in severe brain injury. If swelling occurs, then pressure within the skull must be lowered, by such methods as elevating the head of the bed, by draining cerebrospinal fluid, or by using mannitol, hypertonic saline, or barbiturates.

The guidelines are being published simultaneously in three medical journals ( Pediatric Critical Care Medicine 2003;4(suppl): S1-175; Critical Care Medicine 2003;31(suppl): S417-91; Trauma 2003;54(suppl): S235-310).

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Collections under which this article appears: Neurosurgery Injury Neurological injury Children

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