Page 143 - DECISION-MAKING IN SEVERE TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY PATIENT OUTCOME, HOSPITAL COSTS, AND RESEARCH PRACTICE

Focus groups on clinical decision-making in severe traumatic brain injury
KEY POINTS
1. Although multiple recent efforts have contributed to reduce uncertainty and to improve care and outcome for severe traumatic brain injury (s-TBI) patients along the entire chain of care, there remain many uncertainties and paradoxes and a lack of objective criteria in clinical decision-making after s- TBI.
2. Although important for decision-making, well-validated prognostic models predicting long-term outcome on quality of life and satisfaction with life after s-TBI are currently unavailable.
3. Some of the most severely injured TBI patients have been reported to have achieved ‘favorable’ outcome and (surgical) interventions are generally considered beneficial for patient outcome.
4. To further improve s-TBI care, future research should identify and decrease the existing selectivity and identify objective criteria in decision-making and reduce the impact of subjective valuations of predicted patient outcome.
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