This study was a retrospective analysis of the epidemiologic profile of severe\ntraumatic brain injuries managed at the surgical intensive care unit of the\nUniversity Hospital Center of Yaound�©, Cameroon, between January 2011\nand December 2015. All the patients admitted at the surgical intensive care\nunit for a traumatic brain injury with an initial Glasgow coma scale score â�¤ 8\nwere included. One hundred and thirty-five cases were enrolled. One hundred\nand fourteen were males and 21 were females. Their mean age was 32.75 years.\nForty-four patients were aged between 16 to 30 years. Road traffic accidents\nrepresented the first mode of injury with 101 cases and most of the patients\nwere pedestrians hit by a car. Pupils and students were the most involved.\nTwenty-three patients had additional extracranial injury. On admission, 97\n(71.85%) patients had GCS 7-8. A brain CT scan was done for 115 patients. Intracranial\nand intracerebral hemorrhages were the most frequent radiological\nfindings with 57 cases. The overall mortality was 32.59% with 44 deaths. Thirty-\ntwo of the deaths occurred in patients with GCS 7 - 8 on admission. Ninety-\none (67.40%) patients survived, 74 (54.81%) had persisting disabilities, while\nonly 17 (12.59%) recovered fully. The following factors had an impact on the\noutcome: GCS at admission, pupillary anomalies, length of hospital stay, endotracheal\nintubation and surgery. Severe TBI remains a heavy socio-economic\nburden worldwide. In Cameroon where the health system is poorly organized,\nthe outcome of individuals who sustained a severe TBI was dismal.
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