TITLE:
Epidemiological Analysis of 135 Cases of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Managed at a Surgical Intensive Care Unit
AUTHORS:
Aurélien Ndoumbe, Paul Boris Ngoyong Edu, Chantal Simeu, Samuel Takongmo
KEYWORDS:
Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, Intensive Care, Epidemiology, Outcome, Cameroon
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Neurosurgery,
Vol.8 No.1,
January
26,
2018
ABSTRACT: This study was a retrospective analysis of the
epidemiologic profile of severe traumatic brain injuries managed at the
surgical intensive care unit of the University Hospital Center of Yaoundé,
Cameroon, between January 2011 and December 2015. All the patients admitted at
the surgical intensive care unit for a traumatic brain injury with an initial Glasgow coma scale score ≤ 8 were included. One
hundred and thirty-five cases were enrolled. One hundred and fourteen were
males and 21 were females. Their mean age was 32.75 years. Forty-four patients
were aged between 16 to 30 years. Road traffic accidents represented the first
mode of injury with 101 cases and most of the patients were pedestrians hit by
a car. Pupils and students were the most involved. Twenty-three patients had
additional extracranial injury. On admission, 97 (71.85%) patients had GCS 7-8.
A brain CT scan was done for 115 patients. Intracranial and intracerebral
hemorrhages were the most frequent radiological findings with 57 cases. The
overall mortality was 32.59% with 44 deaths. Thirty-two of the deaths occurred
in patients with GCS 7 - 8 on admission. Ninety-one (67.40%) patients survived,
74 (54.81%) had persisting disabilities, while only 17 (12.59%) recovered
fully. The following factors had an impact on the outcome: GCS at admission,
pupillary anomalies, length of hospital stay, endotracheal intubation and
surgery. Severe TBI remains a heavy socio-economic burden worldwide. In
Cameroon where the health system is poorly organized, the outcome of
individuals who sustained a severe TBI was dismal.