TBI Multimodal Monitoring Study

Head injury is a common and devastating condition that can affect people at any stage of their lives. The treatment of severe head injury takes place in intensive care where interventions are designed to protect the brain from further injury and provide the best environment for recovery. A number of different monitors are used after head injury, including a monitor called microdialysis, to measure how the brain is generating energy. Abnormalities in these monitors guide doctors to the right treatments when the brain is at risk of further injury. There are lots of ways that the brain can be injured further after head injury such as raised pressure in the skull from brain swelling, low oxygen levels and low glucose levels. In this study we aim to combine information from all of these monitors to figure out what the underlying problem is and choose the right intervention to treat the problem that is affecting the patient at the time and compare this with previous treatment protocols to see if it improved outcome. Aim: To establish and validate a protocol to treat abnormalities in a microdialysis measure called lactate/pyruvate ratio (LPR) that reflects how cells are generating energy, and compare it with patient cohorts not being monitored using the current protocol.