Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries, Traumatic"

Brain injury is a frequent purpose for consultation in emergency services. Management of brain injury is time and resource consuming, combining clinical monitoring and imaging. The stage prior to the management of the victims of brain injury is stratification of the severity, potential or proven. Severe brain injury requires emergent brain CT-scan, ideally within one hour of the first medical contact. Patients requiring this strategy present with focused neurological deficit, Glasgow score <15 to 2 hours after the trauma, suspicion of open fracture of the skull or dish pan fracture, any signs of fracture of the skull base (hemotympanum, bilateral peri-orbital ecchymosis), otorrhea or rhinorrhea of cerebrospinal fluid, more than one episode of vomiting in adults, and posttraumatic convulsion. Patients benefiting from anticoagulant therapy are included in this category. Victims of brain injury that do not fall into this category are considered less critical. By definition, mild traumatic brain injury : a trauma of the cephalic extremity : whose Glasgow score (30 min after the trauma or during the consultation) is 13-15, associated with one or more of the following: confusion; disorientation; loss of consciousness of 30 min or less; post-traumatic amnesia of less than 24 hours; other transient neurological abnormalities (focal signs, epileptic seizures, non-surgical intracranial lesion). Among these patients, some are considered at risk of developing intracerebral lesions. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the prevalence of hemorrhagic complications is radically different between patients with a Glasgow score of 13 and those with a score of 15. Thus, the recommendations suggest a brain scan without injection of contrast media within 4 to 8 hours for patients with the following characteristics : a retrograde amnesia of more than 30 minutes, a loss of consciousness or amnesia associated with: either a risk mechanism (pedestrian overturned by a motor vehicle, ejection of a vehicle, falling by more than one meter), or an age> 65 years, or coagulation disorders, including the use of platelet aggregation therapy. Patients who fall outside this definition are considered low risk of complication and should not benefit of imaging. Data from the scientific literature show that an early brain CT-scan allows identification of post-traumatic lesions in this population. Nevertheless, organizational problems, including the availability of the imaging, radiation, and disruption of surveillance related to patient displacement, are limitations to this strategy. In contrast, the low cost-effectiveness of CT scan is often advocated in patients with mild traumatic brain injury. For example, in the Octopus study, 52 of 1316 patients who received CT scan after mild head trauma had an intracerebral lesion. Among these patients, 39 (3%) had intracerebral lesion related to trauma; for 13 (1%) patients, the link with the trauma was uncertain. In fact, the search of alternatives for a safer, more conservative, more efficient practice, one of the objectives of which is to limit the undue use of cerebral scanning. Thus, many teams have been interested in the use of biological variables to guide the decision to use imagery. Among candidate biomarkers, the S100B protein has been the subject of many evaluations which allow it to be used in current practice. Indeed, the increase of the S100B protein carried out within 3 hours following a mild head trauma makes it possible to identify the patients at risk of intracerebral lesion and to target the indications of imaging. The purpose of the registry is to describe the use, interpretation and performance of the S100B protein in its use at bedside in emergency medicine.

The purpose of the study is to assess the usability and tolerability of this jugular vein compression device in a population of helmeted and non-helmeted competitive high school, collegiate and professional athletes in the sports of football and rugby. This study differs from previous work in that it is designed to capture additional data related to the athlete experience wearing the jugular vein compression device in older and more elite playing levels.

The ability to regulate impulses enables us to plan for the future, to maintain focus in the face of distractions (i.e. to encode memories), and to manage emotions. This self regulation can be compromised in individuals who have a history of mild traumatic brain injury and co-occurring disorders. In this study the investigators are using functional MRI scanning to understand how memory and self regulation are expressed in the brains of people with a history of mild traumatic brain injury. The investigators are also testing whether the medication tolcapone may improve memory and self regulation.

Observational study to investigate the natural course of intracranial pressure (ICP) after decompressive craniectomy (DC) using long-term telemetric ICP monitoring. Patients will have continuous ICP measurement performed during the admission to the neuro-intensive care unit (NICU) and after discharge weekly measurements sessions will be performed before and after cranioplasty.

The LITES Network is an operational trauma center consortium which has the expertise, track record and confirmed capabilities to conduct prospective, multicenter, injury care and outcomes research of relevance to the Department of Defense (DoD). Hemorrhage and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are responsible for the largest proportion of all trauma-related deaths. It is the poly-trauma patient who suffers both hemorrhagic shock and traumatic brain injury where a paucity of evidence exists to direct treatment, limiting the development of beneficial trauma practice guidelines. The use of Whole Blood (WB) for early trauma resuscitation has been touted as the 'essential next step' in the evolution of trauma resuscitation. Despite its historical and more recent use, little is known regarding WB's benefit relative to the 'current practice' ratio-based blood component therapy in the acutely bleeding patient, and even less is known regarding its effects in patients with TBI. AIM#1: Evaluate patient centered outcomes associated with early whole blood resuscitation practice as compared to component resuscitation in poly-trauma patients with hemorrhagic shock and further characterize outcome benefits in those with traumatic brain injury. AIM#2: Characterize blood pressure and resuscitation endpoints during the acute resuscitation phase of care and the associated/attributable outcomes for traumatic brain injury in patients with hemorrhagic shock. General Hypothesis #1: Whole blood resuscitation will be associated with improved mortality and resuscitation outcomes in poly-trauma patients and long term neurological outcome in those patients with traumatic brain injury as compared to those resuscitated with component therapy. General Hypothesis #2: Differences in prehospital and acute phase resuscitation systolic blood pressure will be associated with differential outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury at discharge and at 6 months. Study Design: The LITES network will perform a multicenter, prospective, observational cohort study over a 4 year period to determine the impact of whole blood resuscitation in trauma patients with hemorrhagic shock at risk of large volume resuscitation with and without TBI. Early whole blood resuscitation will be compared to standard component resuscitation. The study will also further characterize blood pressure and resuscitation endpoints in poly-trauma patients with traumatic brain injury. Six Trauma sites with appropriate characteristics will be selected from 12 LITES Network sites across the country. Study Setting: The study will be performed utilizing busy level I trauma centers within the LITES Network located across the country, at sites where either whole blood has currently been incorporated into standard of care or where component blood transfusion is being utilized for patients in hemorrhagic shock at risk for large volume resuscitation. Study Population: The study will focus on patients who suffer blunt or penetrating injury, transported to a SWAT participating LITES trauma center with evidence of hemorrhagic shock at risk of large volume blood resuscitation.

Using a prospective cohort of children admitted to the PICU, the investigators will determine HRV monitoring is feasible, if a decreased HRV in the 7 days following moderate or severe TBI in children is associated with a worse outcome 6 months post-TBI and investigate HRV as a tool that can predict adverse events (neurological crisis) within 2 days following TBI.

Patients with Head Injury have been associated with varying degree of cardiac dysfunction resulting in adverse events during emergency surgery and during recover from head injury. This study intends to study the incidence and impact of cardiac dysfunction using electrocardiogram, transthoracic echocardiogram and cardiac enzyme levels in head injury patients during and following emergency surgery. Our results will facilitate better management, guide specific therapy and help in prognostication in this group of patients.

Observational longitudinal study assessing outcomes following moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

PREDICT II is an observational, prospective design, single-center study aiming to determine whether the prognosis of neurological outcome at 6 months in patients undergoing traumatic brain injury established by a doctor at his initial management is more accurate in experienced doctors versus junior doctors.

The objective of this study is to identify home safety hazards for adolescents with acquired brain injury and to identify adaptations to the home healthcare virtual simulation training system (HH-VSTS) to improve the user experience for adolescents with ABI