Brain Injury Awareness Month 2019

June is Brain Injury Awareness Month (BIAM)! BIAM is all about raising awareness about the prevalence of acquired brain injury, the impact on individuals and families, the ways we can make changes and do better, and how everyone can support a person in their community.

Our evidence repository is full of resources for treating and managing pediatric concussion and severe head trauma in the ED.

Concussion is “a traumatic brain injury, induced by biomechanical forces”. Concussion results from acceleration and deceleration forces which may be caused either by a direct blow to the head, face, neck or elsewhere on the body with an 'impulsive' force transmitted to the head. Loss of consciousness and amnesia are not required for a diagnosis of concussion. Up to 3 million concussions occur annually, with over 700,000 emergency department (ED) visits in the USA for pediatric concussions.

Some notable resources available on trekk.ca:

• A Bottom Line Recommendation summarizing the key points for treatment and management of pediatric concussions. This resources was created with the help of Dr. Roger Zemek, leading expert on pediatric concussion research in Canada.

• A podcast by Emergency Medicine Cases with key clinical pearls on managing blood pressure, the use of hypertonic saline and managing raised intracranial pressure in the treatment of major head injury. 

• Two whiteboard videos about concussion management in the home and when your child can go back to school as well as a review of concussions for parents and kids.