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Review Article
4 (
1
); 33-38
doi:
10.4103/0976-3147.105607

Initial management of traumatic brain injury in the rural setting

Departments of Neurosurgery, Western Australia
Departments of Intensive Care Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia
Address for correspondence: Dr. Honeybul S Department of Neurosurgery, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital Western Australia stephen.honeybul@health.wa.gov.au
Licence
This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Disclaimer:
This article was originally published by Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd. and was migrated to Scientific Scholar after the change of Publisher.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Healthcare workers in the rural setting face unique problems when dealing with head injured patients however the basic principle of medical management are the same in any situation. The key initial elements remain aggressive early resuscitation followed by a comprehensive assessment of conscious level and either early consultation or transfer to a neurosurgical facility. What has improved considerably over recent years is the understanding of the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury and as such some of the medical management strategies have changed. A basic understanding of some of these concepts is useful in the clinical setting and serves to emphasis the importance of effective early medical management. Thereafter consideration must be given to which patients require radiological investigations and possible discussion with or transfer to a neurosurgical facility.

Keywords

Initial management
traumatic brain injury
rural trauma

Conflicts of interest

None declared

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