scholarly journals Controversies and evidence gaps in the early management of severe traumatic brain injury: back to the ABCs

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e000859
Author(s):  
Seif Tarek El-Swaify ◽  
Mazen A Refaat ◽  
Sara H Ali ◽  
Abdelrahman E Mostafa Abdelrazek ◽  
Pavly Wagih Beshay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Tissue ◽  
Early Recognition ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Blood Product Transfusion ◽  
Clinical Equipoise ◽  
Irreversible Damage ◽  
Early Management ◽  
Airway Patency

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) accounts for around 30% of all trauma-related deaths. Over the past 40 years, TBI has remained a major cause of mortality after trauma. The primary injury caused by the injurious mechanical force leads to irreversible damage to brain tissue. The potentially preventable secondary injury can be accentuated by addressing systemic insults. Early recognition and prompt intervention are integral to achieve better outcomes. Consequently, surgeons still need to be aware of the basic yet integral emergency management strategies for severe TBI (sTBI). In this narrative review, we outlined some of the controversies in the early care of sTBI that have not been settled by the publication of the Brain Trauma Foundation’s 4th edition guidelines in 2017. The topics covered included the following: mode of prehospital transport, maintaining airway patency while securing the cervical spine, achieving adequate ventilation, and optimizing circulatory physiology. We discuss fluid resuscitation and blood product transfusion as components of improving circulatory mechanics and oxygen delivery to injured brain tissue. An outline of evidence-based antiplatelet and anticoagulant reversal strategies is discussed in the review. In addition, the current evidence as well as the evidence gaps for using tranexamic acid in sTBI are briefly reviewed. A brief note on the controversial emergency surgical interventions for sTBI is included. Clinicians should be aware of the latest evidence for sTBI. Periods between different editions of guidelines can have an abundance of new literature that can influence patient care. The recent advances included in this review should be considered both for formulating future guidelines for the management of sTBI and for designing future clinical studies in domains with clinical equipoise.

scholarly journals Ketamine in acute phase of severe traumatic brain injury “an old drug for new uses?”

Critical Care ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Agustin Godoy ◽  
Rafael Badenes ◽  
Paolo Pelosi ◽  
Chiara Robba
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Intracranial Pressure ◽  
Acute Phase ◽  
Severe Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Safety Profile ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Sedation And Analgesia

AbstractMaintaining an adequate level of sedation and analgesia plays a key role in the management of traumatic brain injury (TBI). To date, it is unclear which drug or combination of drugs is most effective in achieving these goals. Ketamine is an agent with attractive pharmacological and pharmacokinetics characteristics. Current evidence shows that ketamine does not increase and may instead decrease intracranial pressure, and its safety profile makes it a reliable tool in the prehospital environment. In this point of view, we discuss different aspects of the use of ketamine in the acute phase of TBI, with its potential benefits and pitfalls.

scholarly journals Effect of Xenon Treatment on Gene Expression in Brain Tissue after Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 889
Author(s):  
Anton D. Filev ◽  
Denis N. Silachev ◽  
Ivan A. Ryzhkov ◽  
Konstantin N. Lapin ◽  
Anastasiya S. Babkina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Tissue ◽  
Target Genes ◽  
Neural Function ◽  
Stress Genes ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Delayed Recovery ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Lower Expression

The overactivation of inflammatory pathways and/or a deficiency of neuroplasticity may result in the delayed recovery of neural function in traumatic brain injury (TBI). A promising approach to protecting the brain tissue in TBI is xenon (Xe) treatment. However, xenon’s mechanisms of action remain poorly clarified. In this study, the early-onset expression of 91 target genes was investigated in the damaged and in the contralateral brain areas (sensorimotor cortex region) 6 and 24 h after injury in a TBI rat model. The expression of genes involved in inflammation, oxidation, antioxidation, neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, apoptosis, DNA repair, autophagy, and mitophagy was assessed. The animals inhaled a gas mixture containing xenon and oxygen (ϕXe = 70%; ϕO2 25–30% 60 min) 15–30 min after TBI. The data showed that, in the contralateral area, xenon treatment induced the expression of stress genes (Irf1, Hmox1, S100A8, and S100A9). In the damaged area, a trend towards lower expression of the inflammatory gene Irf1 was observed. Thus, our results suggest that xenon exerts a mild stressor effect in healthy brain tissue and has a tendency to decrease the inflammation following damage, which might contribute to reducing the damage and activating the early compensatory processes in the brain post-TBI.

scholarly journals Acoustofluidic separation enables early diagnosis of traumatic brain injury based on circulating exosomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeyu Wang ◽  
Haichen Wang ◽  
Ryan Becker ◽  
Joseph Rufo ◽  
Shujie Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Flow Cytometry ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Early Diagnosis ◽  
Tissue Injury ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Early Management ◽  
Biomarker Analysis ◽  
Downstream Analysis

AbstractTraumatic brain injury (TBI) is a global cause of morbidity and mortality. Initial management and risk stratification of patients with TBI is made difficult by the relative insensitivity of screening radiographic studies as well as by the absence of a widely available, noninvasive diagnostic biomarker. In particular, a blood-based biomarker assay could provide a quick and minimally invasive process to stratify risk and guide early management strategies in patients with mild TBI (mTBI). Analysis of circulating exosomes allows the potential for rapid and specific identification of tissue injury. By applying acoustofluidic exosome separation—which uses a combination of microfluidics and acoustics to separate bioparticles based on differences in size and acoustic properties—we successfully isolated exosomes from plasma samples obtained from mice after TBI. Acoustofluidic isolation eliminated interference from other blood components, making it possible to detect exosomal biomarkers for TBI via flow cytometry. Flow cytometry analysis indicated that exosomal biomarkers for TBI increase in the first 24 h following head trauma, indicating the potential of using circulating exosomes for the rapid diagnosis of TBI. Elevated levels of TBI biomarkers were only detected in the samples separated via acoustofluidics; no changes were observed in the analysis of the raw plasma sample. This finding demonstrated the necessity of sample purification prior to exosomal biomarker analysis. Since acoustofluidic exosome separation can easily be integrated with downstream analysis methods, it shows great potential for improving early diagnosis and treatment decisions associated with TBI.

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