Traumatic Brain Injury in Myanmar: Preliminary Results and Development of an Adjunct Electronic Medical Record

The treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Myanmar is a major health issue. Comprehensive appreciation of the pathology is limited given the lack of granular metadata available. In this proof-of-concept study, we analyzed demographic data on TBI generated from a novel, prospective, online database in a lower-middle income country. Neurosurgery residents were given an electronic tablet for data entry into an online database. Metadata-driven data capture was carried out prospectively by trained residents, and the information was reviewed weekly by the supervising team in the United States. Complete data were available on 242/253 (96%) patients. Age at admission was 37 years (range 16–85), and length of stay was 3.53 days (1–21). Etiologies included motorcycle accidents, falls, assaults, pedestrian vehicular injuries, and industrial accidents. Dispositions were primarily to home (211). Average Glasgow Coma Scale score at admission was 12.97. There was a 68% mortality rate of patients directly admitted to the North Okkalappa General and Teaching Hospital with a Glasgow Coma Scale score