Slovenská chirurgia 4e/2023

Diagnosing mild traumatic brain injuries in geriatric population

Traumatic brain injuries are the second most common cause of hospitalization among seniors after a fall in the Slovak Republic (2786 out of 18463 admissions), and their management represents a complex medical, economic, and social challenge. The most common type of injury is mild traumatic brain injury, defined by the degree of impaired consciousness according to the Glasgow Coma Scale 15-13. In this category, the risk of intracranial injuries is approximately 10%, with the risk of severe injuries requiring neurosurgical intervention approximately around 3%. Despite the relatively low risk, according to the current recommendations, almost all these patients are indicated for imaging examination with computerized tomography. Therefore, additional parameters (patient history, clinical, or laboratory markers) are increasingly being included in diagnostic procedures with the aim of improving the stratification of the risk of intracranial injuries and potentially reducing the use of imaging examinations in the future, which have several undesirable characteristics.

Keywords: traumatic brain injury, geriatric pacients, diagnostic