| Crash Victim's Face Injury May Signal Brain Injury |
| 来源:急救快车;添加日期:2003-1-23;编辑:ark |
January 20, 2003 Reuters Motorcycle riders who injure their faces or fracture face bones are much more likely to have brain injury than those who do not sustain facial injuries during an accident, new study findings show.
Although there has been much study on the care of facial injury among accident victims, there has been little investigation into other injuries associated with damage to the face, according to lead author Dr. Jess F. Kraus of the UCLA School of Public Health in Los Angeles, California.
To investigate, the team of researchers evaluated the medical records of 5,790 motorcycle riders injured in crashes between 1991 and 1993. They report their findings in the January issue of the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.
In all, nearly one in four injured riders had a facial injury, including 411 riders who each had at least one facial fracture, according to the report.
"The odds of traumatic brain injury were 3.5 times greater with than without a facial injury and 6.5 times greater with a facial fracture than with no facial injury," the authors write.
"The findings of this study support previous research demonstrating an association between facial fractures and traumatic brain injury," the authors write.
As a result, the authors are recommending that emergency room doctors screen all motorcyclists with fractures of face bones for brain injury, regardless of whether they were wearing a helmet at the Motorcycle riders may be able to minimize the risk of brain injury by wearing full-face motorcycle helmets, the authors conclude.
SOURCE: Annals of Emergency Medicine 2003;41:18-26.
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