Publication Date: June 2024 (Volume 21, Supplement 6)
CME Credits: 4 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ and 4 AOA Category 2-B CME credits. CME expires 06/15/2027.
Specialty CME Credits: Included as part of the 4 credits, this CME activity is eligible for 4 Trauma credits, subject to your state and institutional approval.
Authors
Peer Reviewer
More than 1.7 million traumatic brain injuries occur in adults and children each year in the United States, with approximately 30% occurring in children aged <14 years. Traumatic brain injury is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric trauma patients. The early management of severe traumatic brain injury is focused on mitigation and prevention of secondary injury, specifically by avoiding hypotension and hypoxia, which have been associated with poorer outcomes. This review discusses methods to maintain adequate oxygenation, maximize management of intracranial hypertension, and optimize blood pressure in the emergency department to improve neurologic outcomes following pediatric severe traumatic brain injury.
The mother, who is 22 years old and has 2 other children, is vague in her description of the child’s symptoms. The nurse calls you into triage because she notes the child appears unresponsive. The mother denies any trauma. The infant’s vital signs are as follows: afebrile; heart rate, 160 beats/min; blood pressure, 70/40 mm Hg; respiratory rate, 30 breaths/min; and oxygen saturation, 93% on room air. You struggle to calculate a GCS score, as this patient is not yet verbal. On physical examination, the child is minimally responsive and has irregular and shallow respiration, so you prepare to intubate. During placement of an IV line, the child flexes his left arm in response to pain, but no spontaneous movement of the right arm or leg is noted. During the secondary survey, you note a bulging fontanelle and a dilated left pupil, with deviation of the left eye both downward and peripherally. You have the clerk page neurosurgery emergently. The respiratory therapist asks you if you would like to hyperventilate the patient.
What should your target PaCO2 level be? What medication(s) should be given immediately? Once stabilized, are there any other services or specialists that should be involved with this patient, based on the history?
When the patient arrives, you quickly calculate a GCS score of 7 (E1, M4, V2), and you page the trauma surgery team to the ED. The patient's vital signs are as follows: afebrile; heart rate, 115 beats/min; blood pressure, 110/60 mm Hg; respiratory rate, 10 breaths/min; and oxygen saturation, 90% on room air. She has obvious right-sided head trauma and is in cervical spine immobilization. You immediately place a nonrebreather mask on the patient and call for rapid sequence intubation medications and equipment. You intubate the patient while maintaining cervical spine precautions. The neurosurgeon calls you back and states that he is on his way to the hospital.
What initial steps should be taken to stabilize this patient? How will you determine the disposition for this patient?
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