“Neurotrauma Care”: A Challenge in the Americas

Abstract

organized care at least in the Pan-American region. Prevention, education, research, and social leadership are fundamental skills that all the trauma care providers from the region need to promote in order to improve neurotrauma care for the next generations.6,7 Trauma kills every day more people than COVID-19 but the resources allocated to both problems are totally different. Research in COVID-19 exponentially grows every day compared with The present special issue on neurotrauma care from the Pan-American Journal of Trauma, Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery, fills a critical gap in the understanding of the impact of neurotrauma care within the trauma surgery community in the Pan-American region. According to the World Health Organization data, the burden of injuries in the region represents the most important number of victims from 5–45 years, and the fatality is totally driven by neurotrauma, being present in near to 90% of the polytrauma deaths (Fig. 1).1 This special issue was requested urgently and fortunately, the Editor-in-Chief accepted the offer to open a call for neurotrauma-related articles from the region. Near to 90% of neurotrauma patients worldwide are in Latin America, Africa, and South-East Asia. Most of them are in middle and low developing indexed regions.2 Motor vehicle-related incidents are the leading mechanism, mostly associated with motorcycle accidents.3-5 The economic and social impact is neglected in most countries of these regions, reflected in the lack of organized trauma care systems defined by low engagement of these topics in the present and future political agendas. Multidisciplinary and multi-institutional action is required to fill these gaps for capacity building in trauma and neurotrauma 1Crítical Care Unit, Centro Policlínico del Olaya, (CPO) Bogota, Colombia 2Department of Neurosciences & Neurosurgery, Neurosciences Institute/Universidad El Bosque, Bogota, Colombia 3Head of Neurosurgery, Hospital Lusiadas Porto, Senior Consultant Centro Hospitalar Gaia e Espinho, Treasurer and Executive Board, Cervical Spine Research Society, CSRS-E Fulbright Fellow How to cite this article: Moscote-Salazar LR, Rubiano AM, Alves ÓL. Neurotrauma Care: A Challenge in the Americas. Panam J Trauma Crit Care Emerg Surg 2021;10(3):91–92. Source of support: Nil Conflict of interest: None Neurotrauma Care: A Challenge in the Americas Luis R Moscote-Salazar1, Andrés M Rubiano2, Óscar L Alves3