Encephalopathy in setting of Traumatic Brain Injuries

melanie.halpern@gmail.commelanie.halpern@gmail.com
in Clinical & Coding
Do you query for encephalopathy in traumatic brain injured patients, assuming clinical indicators are present? Or, do you consider encephalopathy as integral to the traumatic brain injury?
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  • cindys@hollandhospital.orgcindys@hollandhospital.org
    melanie.halpern@atlantichealth.org said:
    Do you query for encephalopathy in traumatic brain injured patients, assuming clinical indicators are present? Or, do you consider encephalopathy as integral to the traumatic brain injury?

  • bawolfy@yahoo.combawolfy@yahoo.com
    I recently listened to this ACDIS Radio episode from July 2016 (Dr. Kennedy): http://www.acdis.org/acdis-radio/encephalopathy  
    My best interpretation . . . It depends.  If the AMS/encephalopathy is due to the TBI, I would vote "integral".  Not every patient with TBI has symptoms of encephalopathy, and I might wonder if there were exceptional factors (like cerebral edema) contributing to the severity of illness.  If there was a metabolic problem  (for example hyponatremia) in addition to the TBI, I would ask for clarification on what is primarily causing the AMS and go for the metabolic encephalopathy if they said the hyponatremia.  
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