Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/1XFfgZZr-ZU At least half of those seen in the ED and diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury are left with significant functional limitations at one year post-injury.  This surprising statistic comes from a nationwide, multi-center study just published in JAMA Neurology. Those with positive findings on brain CT had a 61% incidence of long-term disability.  But even those with negative findings on the CT had. 49% incidence of continuing issues. This result suggests that even patients with seemingly mild traumatic brain injuries must be followed carefully post-injury in order to detect problems and promptly provide rehabilitation therapy.  The finding also adds to the many studies of chronic traumatic encephalopathy that suggest there is no such thing as a mild brain injury. Nelson LD, Temkin NR, Dikmen S, et al. Recovery After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Patients Presenting to US Level I Trauma Centers: A Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury (