Management of Traumatic Brain Injury in Disaster Situations

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Introduction[edit | edit source]

Disaster, as defined by the United Nations, is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or society, which involve widespread human, material, economic or environmental impacts that exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.[1] It is generally a sudden, calamitous event that result in immediate, and often significant loss of life and long-term physical impairments such as traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, fractures, and peripheral nerve injuries; often concomitantly associated with related mental health conditions including situational anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. [2] According to the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies a disaster occurs when a hazard impacts on vulnerable people. The combination of hazards, vulnerability and inability to reduce the potential negative consequences of risk results in disaster. [3]

While disasters can be caused by nature, the human influence on disasters have been widespread throughout the centuries, particularly in relation to conflict situations. Natural disasters and armed conflict are two of the main types of disasters and have marked human existence throughout history resulting in peaks in mortality and morbidity. [4] Find out more about the different types of Disasters here. (Link to Types of Disaster Management on https://physio-pedia.com/Disaster_Management)

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Resources[edit | edit source]

International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine: Disaster Rehabilitation Committee - Role and future agenda Sept 2018

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Brain Injuries and Disaster Events Information for Clinicians - List of useful organisations and links

Lee SY, Amatya B, Judson R, Truesdale M, Reinhardt JD, Uddin T, Xiong XH, Khan F. Applicability of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation interventions in natural disaster settings. Brain injury. 2019 Aug 24;33(10):1293-8.

"Many recommendations for TBI care are challenging to implement in disaster settings due to complexities related to the environment, resources, service provision, workforce, and other reasons"

Amatya B, Vasudevan V, Zhang N, Chopra S, Astrakhantseva I, Khan F. Minimum technical standards and recommendations for traumatic brain injury rehabilitation teams in sudden-onset disasters. The Journal of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. 2018 Apr 1;1(2):72.

"Specialized rehabilitation teams in any disasters are deployed based on the response to meet specific needs required at the request of the host health authorities. These teams should be multidisciplinary and need to be integrated into a disaster response and management plan and their skills need to be shared with local rehabilitation and health-care providers through mentoring and educating/training."

Vasudevan V, Amatya B, Chopra S, Zhang N, Astrakhantseva I, Khan F. Minimum technical standards and recommendations for traumatic brain injury specialist rehabilitation teams in sudden-onset disasters (for Disaster Rehabilitation Committee special session). Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. 2018 Jul 1;61:e120.

Regens JL, Mould N. Prevention and treatment of traumatic brain injury due to rapid-onset natural disasters. Frontiers in public health. 2014 Apr 14;2:28

Battlefield and Disaster Nursing Pocket Guide, Ed. by Elizabeth Bridges. Jones & Bartlett, 2009 - guidelines for managing mild through to severe TBI injuries

Veenema TG, editor. Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness. Springer Publishing Company; 2018 Jul 28.

Military Acute Concussion Evaluation 2 (MACE 2)

3 question DVBIC TBI screening tool

Joint Trauma System Clinical Practice Guideline: Neurosurgery and Severe Head Injury (CPG ID:30), Mar 2017

References[edit | edit source]

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  1. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named p4
  2. Trivedi N, Rathod PV. Physiotherapy in Disaster Management: Physiotherapist View. National Journal of Integrated Research in Medicine. 2017 Jul 1;8(4).
  3. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. What is a Disaster. http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/about-disasters/what-is-a-disaster/. [Accessed: 9 Jan 2017]
  4. Leaning J, Guha-Sapir D. Natural Disasters, Armed Conflict, and Public Health. New England Journal of Medicine. 2013 Nov 7;369(19):1836-42