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Head Injury Guideline
A poster entitled
Head Injury Guideline
has been developed through the cooperative efforts of the Division of
Neurosurgery (Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, Capital Health and the
IWK Health Centre), and the Emergency Health Services Nova Scotia Trauma
Program. The primary objectives of this
Head Injury Guideline
are to standardize the initial assessment and management of head-injured
patients presenting to any emergency department in the Province of Nova Scotia,
and to facilitate early transfer to definitive care.
Clinical research has demonstrated that proper initial
management of patients with head injury is extremely important, and the
implementation of this
Head Injury
Guideline will ultimately lead to improved patient outcome. Transient
episodes of hypoxia and/or hypotension have been shown to double mortality in
head injury. Time to definitive care of serious head injury, and treatment in a
tertiary care neurosurgical center have also been shown to be predictors of
outcome.
Trauma remains the number one killer of Canadians under the
age of 45, is the third highest contributor to economic costs of specific
diseases in Canada and is the highest contributor to potential years of life
lost of any single disease process. Head injury itself remains the number killer
in major trauma and places an enormous burden on families, communities and the
health care system.
This poster has been circulated to all hospitals and emergency
departments within Nova Scotia. It takes into account not only the literature
and evidence around assessment, treatment and imaging of head injury (from minor
to major injury), but also the unique features of Nova Scotia in regard to
critical care access, critical care transport and the allocation of tertiary
care neurosurgical expertise in relation to geography. The poster also contains
criteria to delineate minor from major head injury and includes a pediatric
section and a reminder of the key role of the Glasgow Coma Scale in clinical
measurement of severity of head injury.
Any feed back to the authors of this
Head Injury Guideline through
their respective organizations is strongly encouraged. Comments may be directed
to:
John M. Tallon MD FRCP
Medical Director
Nova Scotia Trauma Program
1-026B, 1st Floor Centennial
1278 Tower Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 2Y9
902 473-7157
jtallon@is.dal.ca
Or
David B. Clarke MDCM, PhD, FRCSC, DABNS
Division of Neurosurgery Queen Elizabeth II HSC
1796 Summer Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 3A7
902 473-7214
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