Author(s)

Aurélien Ndoumbe^1*, Paul Boris Ngoyong Edu¹, Chantal Simeu², Samuel Takongmo^3,4

¹Faculty of Medicine & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
²Service of Anesthesiology & Intensive Care, University Hospital Center of Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
³Faculty of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
⁴Service of Surgery, University Hospital Center of Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon.

This study was a retrospective analysis of the epidemiologic profile of severe traumatic brain injuries managed at the surgical intensive care unit of the University Hospital Center of Yaoundé, Cameroon, between January 2011 and December 2015. All the patients admitted at the surgical intensive care unit for a traumatic brain injury with an initial Glasgow coma scale score ≤ 8 were included. One hundred and thirty-five cases were enrolled. One hundred and fourteen were males and 21 were females. Their mean age was 32.75 years. Forty-four patients were aged between 16 to 30 years. Road traffic accidents represented the first mode of injury with 101 cases and most of the patients were pedestrians hit by a car. Pupils and students were the most involved. Twenty-three patients had additional extracranial injury. On admission, 97 (71.85%) patients had GCS 7-8. A brain CT scan was done for 115 patients. Intracranial and intracerebral hemorrhages were the most frequent radiological findings with 57 cases. The overall mortality was 32.59% with 44 deaths. Thirty-two of the deaths occurred in patients with GCS 7 - 8 on admission. Ninety-one (67.40%) patients survived, 74 (54.81%) had persisting disabilities, while only 17 (12.59%) recovered fully. The following factors had an impact on the outcome: GCS at admission, pupillary anomalies, length of hospital stay, endotracheal intubation and surgery. Severe TBI remains a heavy socio-economic burden worldwide. In Cameroon where the health system is poorly organized, the outcome of individuals who sustained a severe TBI was dismal.

Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, Intensive Care, Epidemiology, Outcome, Cameroon

Ndoumbe, A. , Ngoyong Edu, P. , Simeu, C. and Takongmo, S. (2018) Epidemiological Analysis of 135 Cases of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Managed at a Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Open Journal of Modern Neurosurgery, 8, 119-131. doi: 10.4236/ojmn.2018.81010.