Prevalence of operable intracranial lesions from mild traumatic brain injury in a National Trauma Centre

Background Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) occupies majority of head traumas in most emergency units. Although patients with mild TBI can be reviewed and discharged on head injury advice, a sizeable number require admission for observation or intervention due to operable intracranial lesions. The aim of the study was to establish the prevalence of operable lesions in patients with mild TBI. Materials and methods This was a prospective study of consecutive adult patients with mild TBI who had cranial computerized tomography (CT) done at the National Trauma Centre, Abuja. All participants gave informed consent and the study had ethical clearance in the Hospital. Results One hundred and three mild TBI patients with cranial CTs were recruited aged 16–76 years with mean age of 32.25 ± 12.35 years. With intention to treat, twenty (20.4%) of them were diagnosed with operable intracranial lesions on CT scans, 19 males and 2 females. Majority of them (14; 66.7%) were young adults within 20–40 years of age. The lesions were 16 extradural haematomas (76.2%), 3 subdural haematomas (14.3%) and 2 depressed skull fractures (9.5%) of the operable cohort. Conclusions Significant number of patients with mild TBI had operable intracranial lesions. Therefore, there is need to screen patients with mild TBI appropriately in order to avoid missed operable lesions.