Catastrophic Brain Injury

This book provides a superb integration of clinical and research findings on catastrophic brain injury. The clinical chapters address the definition, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and outcome of the most severe closed head injuries that typically result in death or devastating neurobehavioral sequelae. They cover cerebral metabolism following catastrophic brain injury, medical management, pharmacologic treatment for survivors, the impact on the family, and legal and ethical issues. The chapters on experimental research include reviews of recent advances in characterizing neurochemical interactions contributing to secondary brain injury and of experimental studies of the effects of neural transplantation on cognitive performance in animals. A summary chapter synthesizes the clinical and experimental material, provides an update concerning ongoing clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of drugs and hypothermia in the treatment of acute severe head injury, and offers a perspective on future directions of research to mitigate the consequences of severe head injury.