The Brain Trauma Foundation. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons. The Joint Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care. Hypotension

Abstract

Hypotension, occurring at any time from injury through the acute intensive care course, has been found to be a primary predictor of outcome from severe head injury for the health care delivery systems within which prognostic variables have been best studied. Hypotension is repeatedly found to be one of the five most powerful predictors of outcome and is generally the only one of these five that is amenable to therapeutic modification. A single recording of a hypotensive episode is generally associated with a doubling of mortality and a marked increase in morbidity from a given head injury. The estimated reduction in unfavorable outcome that would result from the elimination of hypotensive secondary brain insults is profound.