ABSTRACT
Traumatic brain injury represents a significant cause of neurological problems in those seeking aeromedical licensing. The initial injury can vary, at the mildest, from a short period of loss of consciousness to severe injury with neurological deficit and evidence from a computer tomographic scan of intracranial bleeding or damage. This chapter reviews acute care of traumatic brain injury. It provides analysis of risk for post-traumatic epilepsy at the one per cent level. A key issue in the determination of possible sequelae from a head injury has traditionally and depended upon the assessment of the severity of the injury. Patients may self-refer after an incident which is apparently trivial, or they may discount it or even forget the incident. Conscious level and risk from skull fracturing provide immediate risk factors for the development of secondary brain injury. Patients who sustain a subdural haematoma after head injury vary from the apparently unimpaired through to the fatally injured.
