A STUDY ON ROLE OF ROUTINE FOLLOW UP CT SCAN IN TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common problem in clinical practice and forms the major part of Neurosurgeons' work in this part of the world. Computerized Tomographic (CT) Scan is a very important tool in the diagnosis and decision making in the management of TBI. Since many of the traumatic brain lesions tend to evolve in the rst few days of injury, it is a common practice among many Neurosurgeons to do routine follow up CT scan in the rst few days after the initial CT, irrespective of whether there has been clinical deterioration or not. But this practice is often questioned and the literature is divided in its opinion on this issue. Hence this study has been undertaken to see whether the routine follow up CT is really indicated even in the absence of clinical deterioration and whether it has changed treatment in these patients. This study has been conducted on 71 patients with TBI including mild, moderate and severe TBI. The follow up CTshowed worsening in 37 patients and resulted in change of treatment in 31 patients. Surgery was performed on the basis of worsening in follow up CT in 7 patients and 3 of these patients did not have corresponding clinical worsening. This study has vindicated the performance of routine follow up CT scan in TBI with or without clinical deterioration so that medical or surgical intervention is performed earlier to prevent major morbidity and mortality.