What do You Expect from Patients with Severe Head Trauma?

Background: Head trauma is one of the most common mortality and morbidity causes in adolescent. Numerous studies have been conducted on changes in laboratory results and mortality and morbidity prognostic factors; however, the obtained results have been varied and controversial. The aim of this study is to evaluate changes in laboratory findings and arterial blood gas (ABG) analyses test at admission and investigation of the relation between these changes with outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury.

Materials and Methods: In this study, laboratory and metabolic variables were compared in patients with severe brain trauma and normal subjects. Laboratory and metabolic variables and ABG were measured on admission in patients with severe brain trauma and then compared with normal values. At last, the correlation between these variables with the prognosis in the patients was studied.

Results: Of 93 studied patients, 82 were male and 11 were female with the mean age of 30.54 years. Among the studied variables, prothrombin time (PT), partial thromboplastin time, international normalized ratio (INR), creatinine (Cr), blood sugar, sodium (Na+), potassium, white blood cell, and blood urea nitrogen increased while hemoglobin and platelet decreased significantly. Regarding the ABG results, the difference in PaCO2 , HCO3 , and SO2 at values was significant; whereas there were no statistical significant difference between the discharged and expired patients. In contrast, PT, INR, Cr, and Na had significant difference comparing the discharged and expired patients.

Conclusion: Laboratory variables do change in patients with severe brain trauma; these changes are influential on patient prognosis, especially in case of PT, INR, Cr, and Na.