Browsing by Author "Dodge, Lydia"

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    Investigating the effects of acute intracranial pressure and brain oxygenation on neuropsychological outcomes 12 months after severe pediatric traumatic brain injury
    (2019) Dodge, Lydia; Schrieff, Leigh; Figaji, Anthony
    Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity among children and adolescents all over the world and studies suggest a higher incidence of pediatric TBI (pTBI), as well as poorer post-TBI outcomes, in countries with extreme levels of socioeconomic inequality such as South Africa. pTBI leads to a multitude of long-term adverse outcomes in a wide range of domains and in general, a dose-response pattern is evident. Multiple acute and post-acute stage predictors of outcome have been investigated, however acute stage neurological and neurosurgical variables are relatively absent from this knowledge base. This study was conducted to better understand the heterogeneity in outcomes of pTBI: it aimed to investigate the nature and severity of neuropsychological deficits in pTBI patients one year after injury and to investigate the association between acute stage physiological changes in intracranial pressure (ICP) and brain tissue oxygenation (PbtO2) and neuropsychological outcomes one year after pTBI. Results of the study indicated that children who sustained TBI performed significantly poorer than healthy, matched controls on multiple cognitive, behavioural and quality of life domains, however, neither acute ICP nor PbtO2 reliably predicted within-TBI group performance. The results of the study emphasise the poor relationship of ICP and PbtO2, and the complexity of the relationship between acute physiological variables and outcomes after pTBI. Further studies of this kind should be done on large sample sizes and include multiple physiological variables.