Commentary
Joao Gustavo Santos
Abstract
If you pay attention to the numbers, it is possible to estimate the impact of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) for public health policies. There are an estimated 235 000 hospitalizations per year for nonfatal TBI in the United States. About 1.1 million Americans are evaluated and released from an emergency department annually and approximately 50 000 die, most of them at the scene of the injury. Current estimates indicate that 124 000 (43.1%) of persons discharged with TBI from acute hospitalizations develop TBI-related long-term disability. Another problem that should be emphasized is that despite most of the victims of TBI recover satisfactorily, about 70% - 90% of them present psychological or neurological symptoms weeks or months after the original head trauma. Persistent cognitive problems occur in 5-22% of cases.