Massachusetts Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

CDC provides guidelines for doctors to determine traumatic brain injuries

The Center for Disease Control has recently revised their guidelines and developed a toolkit for physicians to help them determine if a child has suffered from a traumatic brain injury.

Some people don't get medical treatment at all for  a mild traumatic brain injury MTBI, but that actually can result in life-long impairment, according to the CDC.

Symptoms of MTBI that may persist include:

• persistent headache
• pain
• fatigue
• vision or hearing problems
• memory loss

To assist physicians in early diagnosis of MTBI, the CDC worked with an expert work group to update and create a tool-kit that contains clinical information to help doctors make the correct diagnosis and treatment.

• a booklet with information on diagnosis and management of MTBI;
• a patient assessment tool (Acute Concussion Evaluation or ACE);
• a care plan to help guide a patient's recovery;
• fact sheets in English and Spanish on preventing concussion;
• a palm card for the on-field management of sports-related concussion; and
• a CD-ROM with downloadable kit materials and additional MTBI resources.

If physicans can determine if a TBI is mild but still needs some kind of medical monitoring they can ensure that there are no long-term consequences from the injury.