PHILADELPHIA Aggressive treatment for severe traumatic brain injuries costs more than routine care, yet yields significantly better outcomes, improved quality of life, and lower long term care costs, according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. For example, in 20 year old traumatic brain injury survivor, aggressive care leads to significantly improved outcomes and costs nearly $100,000 less compared to routine care. Across age groups, the costs of aggressive care were outweighed by the beneficial outcomes and long-term cost savings. The study appears online in the Journal of Neurosurgery. With 1.5 million traumatic brain injuries a year, leading to 200,000 hospitalizations and over 52,000 deaths, the economic costs (direct medical care and loss of productivity) of TBI are estimated to equal $60 billion. This is the first study to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of intensive TBI care. "This study clearly shows that aggressive care, for both young and older patients who suffer a severe traumatic brain injury, provides patients the best chance at surviving and recovering, and also reduces lifetime costs associated of TBI treatment," said Robert Whitmore, MD, Neurosurgery resident and the study's lead author. Despite effective guidelines from the … Continue reading →

Public release date: 6-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Gillian Shasby gshasby@thejns.org 434-924-5555 Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group Charlottesville, VA (March 6, 2012). Clinicians from the University of Utah report the death of a patient who received a mild brain injury from a ground-level fall while taking the new anticoagulant dabigatran etexilate for nonvalve related atrial fibrillation. The authors describe the events that led from a mild traumatic brain injury to the man's death, the largely irreversible dangers of massive hemorrhage from direct thrombin inhibitors such as dabigatran, and the few management options that can be used to counteract this "uncontrollable" bleeding. Their findings and suggestions can be found in the article "Neurosurgical complications of direct thrombin inhibitorscatastrophic hemorrhage after mild traumatic brain injury in a patient receiving dabigatran. Case report," by Drs. Sarah Garber, Walavan Sivakumar, and Richard Schmidt, published online March 6 in the Journal of Neurosurgery. The take-away message is that bleeding complications associated with direct thrombin inhibitors, such as dabigatran, are largely irreversible. Physicians should suspect the strong potential for catastrophic hemorrhage in patients taking these medications so that available, albeit limited, management options can be put into effect without delay. Dabigatran etexilate (Pradaxa) … Continue reading →

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE March 6, 2012, 10:00AM ET Expensive yet Cost-Effective: Aggressive Traumatic Brain Injury Care Improves Outcomes, Reduces Long-Term Costs, Penn Study Shows Regardless of Age, Younger and Older Severe TBI Patients Benefit from Aggressive Care Newswise PHILADELPHIA Aggressive treatment for severe traumatic brain injuries costs more than routine care, yet yields significantly better outcomes, improved quality of life, and lower long term care costs, according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. For example, in 20 year old traumatic brain injury survivor, aggressive care leads to significantly improved outcomes and costs nearly $100,000 less compared to routine care. Across age groups, the costs of aggressive care were outweighed by the beneficial outcomes and long-term cost savings. The study appears online in the Journal of Neurosurgery. With 1.5 million traumatic brain injuries a year, leading to 200,000 hospitalizations and over 52,000 deaths, the economic costs (direct medical care and loss of productivity) of TBI are estimated to equal $60 billion. This is the first study to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of intensive TBI care. "This study clearly shows that aggressive care, for both young and older patients who suffer a … Continue reading →

Public release date: 6-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Kim Menard kim.menard@uphs.upenn.edu 215-662-6183 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine PHILADELPHIA Aggressive treatment for severe traumatic brain injuries costs more than routine care, yet yields significantly better outcomes, improved quality of life, and lower long term care costs, according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. For example, in 20 year old traumatic brain injury survivor, aggressive care leads to significantly improved outcomes and costs nearly $100,000 less compared to routine care. Across age groups, the costs of aggressive care were outweighed by the beneficial outcomes and long-term cost savings. The study appears online in the Journal of Neurosurgery. With 1.5 million traumatic brain injuries a year, leading to 200,000 hospitalizations and over 52,000 deaths, the economic costs (direct medical care and loss of productivity) of TBI are estimated to equal $60 billion. This is the first study to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of intensive TBI care. "This study clearly shows that aggressive care, for both young and older patients who suffer a severe traumatic brain injury, provides patients the best chance at surviving and recovering, and also reduces lifetime … Continue reading →

Public release date: 6-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Gillian Shasby gshasby@thejns.org 434-924-5555 Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group Charlottesville, VA (March 6, 2012). Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that aggressive treatment of severe traumatic brain injury, which includes invasive monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP) and decompressive craniectomy, produces better patient outcomes than less aggressive measures and is cost-effective in patients no matter their ageeven in patients 80 years of age. These important findings can be found in the article "Is aggressive treatment of traumatic brain injury cost-effective? Clinical article," by Robert Whitmore and colleagues, published online March 6 in the Journal of Neurosurgery. The authors set out to determine whether aggressive treatment of severe traumatic brain injury is cost-effective compared to less aggressive therapeutic approaches. "Severe traumatic brain injury" in this study is defined by a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 8 or less in which the motor component is 5 or less. These researchers created a decisionanalysis model with which they could compare outcomes, costs, and cost-effectiveness of three treatment strategies: 1) comfort care consisting of one day in the intensive care unit followed by continued care in … Continue reading →