From Clinical Neurology News, 7 August 2013:
Mild traumatic brain injury with intracranial hemorrhage can be safely managed by an acute care surgeon without the need for an inpatient neurosurgical consultation, a retrospective analysis has found.
A study of 270 patients with mild traumatic brain injury and positive CT scan findings of intracranial hemorrhage – 90 of whom received a neurosurgical consultation and 180 of whom did not – found no neurosurgical intervention, in-hospital mortality, or 30-day readmission in either group.
A total of 8% of patients seen by acute care surgeons had a postdischarge visit to the emergency department, compared with 4% of the group who had a neurosurgical consultation (P = .5), according to data published in the July 2013 issue of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (2013;75:102-5 [doi:10.1097/TA.0b013e3182946667]).
Bianca Nogrady 