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Brain Protection in Severe Head Injury
- Accident Prevention Rescue Systems and Primary Care
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By H. E. Diemath, Sommerauer, K. R. H. von Wild

W. Zuckschwerdt Verlag, München - Bern - Wien - New York

ISBN 3-88603-585-9
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The Editors:

Hofrath o. Univ.-Prof. Dr. H. E. Diemath
Neurochirurgische Abteilung
Landesnervenklinik Salzburg
Ignaz-Harrer-Strasse 79
A - 5020 Salzburg / Austria

Oberarzt Dr. J. Sommerauer
Neurochirurgische Abteilung
Landesnervenklinik Salzburg
Ignaz-Harrer-Strasse 79
A - 5020 Salzburg / Austria

Univ. Prof. Dr. K. R. H. von Wild
Clemenshospital
Akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus
Neurochirurgische Klinik
Duesbergweg 124
D - 48153 Münster / Germany
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This book - consisting of 161 pages, 84 figures and 33 tables - is a source of information for doctors in hospitals as well as for general practitioners as a multidisciplinary approach to the subject by means of the publisehd lectures held at the 1st Congress of the EMN 1996 in Salzburg/Austria. It contributes to propagate modern and future-oriented findings in the field of neurotraumatology, and, by its multidisciplinary approach, helps to give severely head injured patients the best possible care and even restore their health.

Contents:

Prevention of accidents

Problems begin even before accidents happen, so that a number of substantial contributions in the book deal with the prevention of accidents. Thus the latest results from tests in the research laboratories at VOLKSWAGEN and AUDI are presented which show that great improvements in the field of passive accident prevention have been achieved.

Accident rescue

The prognosis for severely head injured patients is often predetermined on the very spot where the accident occurs and is dependent on a) the expert transport and b) the time-span between accident and primary care at the hospital. Therefore ample space has been allotted in this book to these matters including treatment in the intensive care unit in the hospital.

Brain edema

Treatment of brain edema is a very central and - in many respects - still unsolved problem. But in this field very new findings concerning neuropathological changes in the traumatized brain have been made which will allow new methods in therapy.

New cerebroprotective substances

Very much money has been spent for many decades for research in the field of the origin and growth of tumors, much less for research in neurotraumatology. Fortunately the situation has changed in recent years, so that substantial progress has been achieved in basic research in neurotraumatology. In the near future the clinical application of a number of cerebroprotective substances can be envisaged which will definitely improve the outcome of even severe head injuries.

Improvement in the treatment

Thus a second step is initiated: After - as a first step - logistical measures are taken which improve primary care and transport of accident victims, as a second step improvements in the treatment in hospital are introduced. Thus methods of gauging the parenchymal oxygen partial pressure as well as intracerebral microdialysis - which are already available - will, when once they have become internationational standard, definitely improve the results of treatment.

Psychological measures

And finally one must not neglect psychological measures of therapy which - side by side with improvements in the field of intensive care - ought to be applied from the intensive care unit onward to rehabilitation and from which the head injured patients as well as their relatives will profit.
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