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Abstract
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) was diagnosed in more than 1 million US inpatient stays and emergency department (ED) visits in 2017, a recent Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) report estimated.
The authors used data from the 2017 National Inpatient Sample and the 2017 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample.
That year, the rate of TBI-related hospitalizations was about 100 per 100 000 population, AHRQ found. In addition, there were an estimated 247 "treat and release" TBI-related emergency department visits per 100 000 population. Although people who lived in urban areas accounted for more than 4 of 5 hospitalizations and ED visits for TBI, rates for both hospitalizations and ED visits were higher in rural areas. Rates also were higher in low-income areas and the Midwest.
Inpatient stays for children younger than 5 years--approximately 25% of which were attributed to assault--and for adults 65 years or older were more likely to involve cerebral hemorrhage, no loss of consciousness, and falls.
The average inpatient stay for patients with a TBI diagnosis was 6.8 days at a cost of $21 000 compared with 4.6 days costing $12 100 for patients without a TBI diagnosis. The in-hospital mortality rate was 7.9% for patients with a TBI diagnosis compared with 1.9% for patients without one.
In the ED, the highest rate of being treated and released for TBI was among children aged 5 to 17 years. Most ED visits for TBI involved an uncomplicated concussion.
As the authors noted, TBI can have multiple consequences, including emotional and behavioral changes, impaired neurologic function, complications from intracranial hemorrhage, and death...
Language: en |