Recent research shows that Extracranial (EC) surgery and anesthesia soon after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been linked to poorer functional and cognitive outcomes.
It was revealed that patients with TBI had worse functional recovery and poorer neurocognitive outcomes at 2 weeks and 6 months than those who did not undergo surgery. Those with moderate to severe TBI (m/sTBI) and those with complicated mild TBI and positive results on CT (CT+ mTBI) reported the worst outcomes.
“These findings support the hypothesis that surgery and anesthesia, or alternatively multiple trauma, might need to be included in the list of secondary insults to be avoided, if possible, to protect the brain after TBI,” said lead investigator, Christopher J. Roberts, MD, PhD.
The findings were published online December 13 in JAMA Surgery.
Impact on Recovery
In a retrospective study with data from the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury study, it was found that patients who underwent EC surgery often had significantly worse functional recovery and neurocognitive outcomes than those who did not have surgery. Particularly, those with m/sTBI and CT+ mTBI groups had the worst outcomes, suggesting that EC surgery may impact brain recovery after TBI.
In an accompanying editorial, it is suggested that delaying nonurgent surgery after TBI could be beneficial based on the study’s findings.
