title: Treatment of very severe brain injuries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To sum up the experience in treating very severe traumatic brain injuries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective analysis of 68 patients with very severe traumatic brain injuries treated in our hospital from 1997 to 2002 was done.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-one (60%) patients died. In the 50 patients treated surgically 27 (40%) survived, 8 recovered well, 9 had moderate disability and 10 had severe deficits. The 18 patients treated non-operatively all died.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Much attention should be given to the observation of the changes of severe brain injuries with cranial base injury. Timely operative decompression, basic life support, keeping effective brain blood perfusion and effective oxygen supply, improving cerebral microcirculation and preventing or controlling complications are the main methods to raise the successful rate of treating very severe brain injuries and the life quality of the patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Nanshan Hospital, Shenzhen 518052, China. yangzhenjiu@163.com
authors.forename: Zhen-jiu
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jia-yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Cheng-xuan
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Wei-jian
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003399:Craniotomy; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods; D019299:Decompression, Surgical; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen