Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Mild traumatic brain injury accounts for 1% to 2% of emergency department visits in the United States. Up to 15% of these patients will have an acute intracranial lession identified on head compute d tomography lessthan 1% of mild traumatic brain will require neurosurgical intervention. Clinical research over the past decade has focussed on identifying the subgroup of patients with mild traumatic brain injury with acute traumatic lesions of computed tomography and specifically those at risk for harboring a potentially castrophic lesion. This research has been used to generate evidence-based guidelines to assit in clinical decision making. There is no evidence to support the use of plain film radiographs in the evaluation of patients with mild traumatic brain injury. The utility of brain-specific biomakers is rapidly evolving, and a growing body of evidence supports their potential role in determining the need for neuroimaging. Clinical predictors for identifying patients with abnormal computed tomography have been established and, if used, may have a significant positive impact on traumatic brain injury-related morbidity and with negative computed tomography are at almost counseled regarding postconcussive symptoms and should and referrals at discharge. Mt. Sinai J Med 76:129-137, 2009 (C) 2009 Mount Sinai School of Medicine