Severe traumatic brain injury negatively impacted by low oxygen levels

It can significantly contribute to death or disability, a recent study shows.

Dr. Mauro Oddo of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center noted that low oxygen levels were linked to poor short term outcomes following a severe traumatic brain injury, regardless of other factors such as blood flow to the brain or intracranial pressure.

During the study, researchers monitored 103 patients with traumatic brain injury to determine how low oxygen affected their brains. The majority of the patients had bleeding inside the brain after severe blunt trauma to the head.

Investigators used sensors to monitor intracranial pressure and brain blood flow. They also monitored the amount of oxygen reaching the brain, and determined which patients had brain hypoxia when their oxygen supply fell below a critical level. Of the patients monitored, 43 percent died, or survived with a severe disability or in a vegetative state.

The greater the oxygen deprivation, the higher the risk of a negative outcome. The average length of time with brain hypoxia was 8.3 hours for patients with poor outcomes after injury versus 1.7 hours for those with good outcomes.

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