New International Study Seeks to Determine Most Effective Treatments for Severe Pediatric TBIs

Surprisingly, while severe traumatic brain injuries are a leading cause of childhood death and injury in the U.S., there is no agreed upon, standard treatment in the medical community.  To change this, the National Institutes of Heath recently commissioned a $16.5 million study to investigate the various treatments for severe TBI and follow their outcomes. Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, the grant recipients, will lead teams in the US, UK, France, Spain, and elsewhere in comparing their treatments and results of 1,000 pediatric participants who sustained severe TBIs.

This study aims to discover which treatments are best not only during the immediate aftermath of the injury, but also in the months ahead. According to Dr. Michael J. Bell, one of the lead researchers, “Rehabilitation for walking, cognitive problems, behavior problems – there are a number of disorders that TBI causes, our hope is to find which strategies minimize these outcomes.”

We look forward to the completion of this 5-year study and the reports of its findings. 

Click below to read more on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Michael A. Fuoco: “Pitt, UPMC to lead study of severe brain injuries in youth.”