Secondary Brain Injury: Prevention and Intensive Care Management

Abstract Head Injury is one of the commonest causes of death. Most are the result of road traffic accidents. Primary Brain injury is the damage sustained as a direct result of the impact on the skull and intracranial contents. Secondary brain injury refers to the changes that evolve over a period of time (from hours to days) after the primary brain injury. It includes an entire cascade of cellular, chemical, tissue, or blood vessel changes in the brain that contribute to further destruction of brain tissue1. The purpose of this article is to outline the importance in early diagnosis and aggressive treatment of secondary brain injury so that further damage to brain can be prevented.