Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2011 Apr 17:19:25.
doi: 10.1186/1757-7241-19-25.

Alcohol consumption, blood alcohol concentration level and guideline compliance in hospital referred patients with minimal, mild and moderate head injuries

Marianne Efskind Harr  1 , Ben Heskestad, Tor Ingebrigtsen, Bertil Romner, Pål Rønning, Eirik Helseth
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Alcohol consumption, blood alcohol concentration level and guideline compliance in hospital referred patients with minimal, mild and moderate head injuries

Marianne Efskind Harr et al. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. .

Abstract

Background: In 2000 the Scandinavian Neurotrauma Committee published guidelines for safe and cost-effective management of minimal, mild and moderate head injured patients.The aims of this study were to investigate to what extent the head injury population is under the influence of alcohol, and to evaluate whether the physicians' compliance to the guidelines is affected when patients are influenced by alcohol.

Methods: This study included adult patients (≥15 years) referred to a Norwegian University Hospital with minimal, mild and moderate head injuries classified according to the Head Injury Severity Scale (HISS). Information on alcohol consumption was recorded, and in most of these patients blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was measured. Compliance with the above mentioned guidelines was registered.

Results: The study includes 860 patients. 35.8% of the patients had consumed alcohol, and 92.1% of these patients had a BAC ≥ 1.00‰. Young age, male gender, trauma occurring during the weekends, mild and moderate head injuries were independent factors significantly associated with being under the influence of alcohol. Guideline compliance was 60.5%, and over-triage was the main violation. The guideline compliance showed no significant correlation to alcohol consumption or to BAC-level.

Conclusions: This study confirms that alcohol consumption is common among patients with head injuries. The physicians' guideline compliance was not affected by the patients' alcohol consumption, and alcohol influence could therefore not explain the low guideline compliance.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Thurman DJ, Guerrero J, Sniezek JE. Traumatic Bain Injury in the United States: A Public Health Perspective. J Head Trauma Rehabil. 1999;14:602–615. doi: 10.1097/00001199-199912000-00009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ghajar J. Traumatic brain injury. Lancet. 2000;356:923–929. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)02689-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tagliaferri F, Compagnone C, Korsic M, Kraus J. A systemic review of brain injury epidemiology in Europe. Acta Neurochir (Wien) 2008;148:255–268. doi: 10.1007/s00701-005-0651-y. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jennett B. Epidemiology of head injury. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1996;60:362–369. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.60.4.362. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Andelic N, Sigurdardottir S, Brunborg C, Roe C. Incidence of hospital-treated traumatic brain injury in the Oslo population. Neuroepidemiology. 2008;30:120–128. doi: 10.1159/000120025. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types