This FERNE Journal Club addresses the general issues related to the emergency care of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients.
This analysis of the optimal care of mTBI patients with possible concussion includes important clinical concepts regarding use of the clinical exam, brain biomarkers, and neuroimaging.
The discussion of optimal mTBI patient care includes the following:
- Use of the bedside physical exam
- Non-contrast head CT neuroimaging and advanced neuroimaging
- Potential use of brain biomarker lab testing
- Special consideration for anticoagulated patients
- Disposition decision making
- Managing post-head injury concussion symptoms
- Practical mTBI patient care issues inherent in the health care system
There are a limited number of references so that interested clinicians can review the publications and the clinical questions and answers in a short time period.
What this FERNE Document Provides to the Learning Clinician:
- Information for the clinician on the clinically relevant diagnostic tests for potential use in emergency patients with minor traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and possible concussion.
- A clinical imperative description and a representative patient history.
- 30 clinically relevant questions with references in nine sections related to use of the clinical exam, brain biomarkers, and neuroimaging for optimizing the care of patients with mTBI and possible concussion.
- Five bullet pointed clinical answers to the 30 clinical questions with a brief description of each answer from 12 references chosen by the editor.
- Five summary statements that clarify the key learning points from this journal club, summarizing the clinical exam, neuroimaging, brain biomarkers, concussion diagnosis, and patient disposition.
- A JAMA formatted reference list of the 12 sources.
A description of how AI was used in the production of this journal club and how this educational tool is intended for use.