The Lund concept for the treatment of patients with severe traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Two different main concepts for the treatment of a severe traumatic brain injury have been established during the last 15 years, namely the more conventional concept recommended in well-established guidelines (eg, U.S. Guideline, European Guideline, Addelbrook's Guideline from Cambridge), on the one hand, and the Lund concept from the University Hospital of Lund, Sweden, on the other. Owing to the lack of well-controlled randomized outcome studies comparing these 2 main therapeutic approaches, we cannot conclude that one is better than the other. This paper is the PRO part in a PRO-CON debate in this journal on the Lund concept. Although the Lund concept is based on a physiology-oriented approach dealing with the hemodynamic principles of brain volume and brain perfusion regulation, traditional treatments are primarily based on a meta-analytic approach from clinical studies. High cerebral perfusion pressure has been an essential goal in the conventional treatments (the cerebral perfusion pressure-guided approach), even though it has been modified in a recent up date of U.S. guidelines. The Lund concept has instead concentrated on management of brain edema and intracranial pressure, along with improvement of cerebral perfusion and oxygenation (the intracranial pressure and perfusion-guided approach). Although conventional guidelines are restricted to clinical data from meta-analytic surveys, the physiological approach of Lund therapy finds support in both experimental and clinical studies. It offers a wider base and can also provide recommendations regarding fluid therapy, lung protection, optimal hemoglobin concentration, temperature control, the use of decompressive craniotomy, and ventricular drainage. This paper puts forward arguments in support of Lund therapy.