Traumatic Brain Injury; Case experience as a model for learning and literature review

The history, evaluation, treatment and follow-up of a patient with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are presented to illustrate the approach and the difficulties that may be encountered. The literature on TBI is reviewed and a checklist prepared that covers the historical aspects, evaluative procedures, and treatment approaches to TBI. The work with the illustrative case has been compared to the literature review check list to evaluate the completeness of the patient’s care. The result of attempts to obtain outside information, of events prior to the trauma, immediately after the trauma and concurrent with the ongoing treatment also are described. The value of proceeding from a textbook to reviews to recent articles is illustrated.