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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a hugely important topic in critical care. It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world with hospital presentations totaling over 2million in the US, 1 million in the UK and 700,000 in Australia each year. Not only do they represent a huge proportion of injuries, but they are a unique in their potential to fundamentally change “who a person is”. As critical care and trauma practitioners there are many aspects of management that can change outcomes for patients in the short and long term.

Dr Mark Wilson (@MarkHWilson) is a neurosurgeon and doctor for the Air Ambulance in the UK. In this session from SMACC Chicago entitled “It’s a Knockout”, he expertly leads a discussion which holds a magnifying glass to the current practice guidelines for managing TBI as taught in ATLS.  On the discussion panel is a star-studded international cast including: Pierre Janin, Andrew Dixon (@DrAndrewDixon), Karim Brohi (@karimbrohi), Karel Harbig (@karelharbig), Deb Stein, Michael McGonigal, Bill Knight, John Hinds and Ralph the Janitor (who looks remarkably like Cliff Reid @cliffreid).

In this discussion forum, international specialists from the fields of neurosurgery, intensive care, trauma surgery, emergency medicine and radiology engage in a discussion of the step-by-step management of a real case of a patient with a head injury. This discussion highlights the many management controversies including how to manage the c-spine, whether or not to oxygenate, whether or not to intubate, when to extubate, if and how to sedate the patient, when to CT and how to monitor the head injured patient. In typical SMACC style this discussion demonstrates the approach to the management of a patient from different vantage points and demonstrates why it is so difficult to come to a consensus of the approach to this type of injury.

Panelists delve into the features of TBI that you won’t find in textbooks including impact brain apnoea, multi-compartment syndrome and more. Watch out for the a segue into the Good Sam App, a smartphone app which alerts registered medically trained personnel to nearby emergencies to minimize downtime when medical emergencies occur.

This forum has everything you have come to love and expect from SMACC including international experts, heated debates, controversial #hashtags, guest speakers and more!