Traumatic Brain Injury: What Do We Know About Cognitive and Behavioral Function Years Later?

When a young patient of ours experiences a traumatic brain injury (TBI) for whatever reason, one of the first questions we often get from parents as care becomes stabilized is what will be the patient’s level of development going forward as a result of that injury? Fortunately, two studies are being shared this week that attempt to answer that question. One by Anderson et al. (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-0311) looks at 40 children who experienced a TBI between the ages of four and seven and follows them and a control group for up to 10 years post-insult. The other study by Crowe et al. (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-0438) follows 53 children injured under the age of three for an average of 40 months and again compares them to a control group. Both studies reveal similar findings in regard to differences in outcome between less severe and more severe injuries, but also raise the importance of environmental factors contributing to adaptive recovery. How does the environment interact with the anatomic damage that has ensued from the TBI? To make sense of the findings of both of these studies we have invited Dr. Harvey Levin, Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor, to share his thoughts in an accompanying commentary (doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-3403). These three articles shed new light on the consequences of cerebral injury and I hope you will download these three articles so you can share the results with parents of children who experience a TBI.