Brain injury is a worldwide leading cause of mortality and morbidity and
requires early and appropriate management to minimize these adverse
sequelae. Despite such needs, access to specialist centers is limited,
forcing both immediate and secondary care of these patients onto
generalist staff. These responsibilities are made more problematical by
differences in patient management between and even within specialist
centers, due in part to an insuffcient evidence-base for many
interventions directed at brain injury. This book is borne out of the
above observations and is targeted at em- gency and acute medicine,
anesthetic and general intensive care staff caring for brain injury of
diverse etiology, or surgical teams responsible for the inpatient care
of minor to moderate head trauma. Although explaining the various facets
of specialist care, the book is not intended to compete with texts
directed at neurosciences staff, but aims to advise on optimal care in
general hospitals, including criteria for transfer, by a combination of
narrative on pathophysiology, principles of care, templates for
documentation, and highly specifc algorithms for particular problems. It
is intended that the content and structure can form the basis of
guidelines and protocols that refect the needs of individual units and
that can be constantly refned. Our ultimate goal is to promote informed,
consistent, auditable, multidisciplinary care for this cohort of
patients and we hope that this text contributes to that process.
