A comparative study of cognitive function following traumatic brain injury: Significance of initial Glasgow coma scale score to predict cognitive outcome

Abstract

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability all over the world. It is associated with diversities of outcomes including cognitive deficits. The worse cognitive outcome is often associated with more severe degree of TBI as measured by initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. Materials and Methods: Present study compared the cognitive function of TBI patients having initial GCS score 9-10 with those having the initial GCS score 11-12. The assessment on Postgraduate Institute battery of brain dysfunction was conducted when the patients came for their follow-up visit at a tertiary health care facility between 6 months and 12 months of sustaining TBI. Results: There was moderate degree of cognitive dysfunction in the group with initial GCS score of 9-10 and no dysfunction in the group with initial GCS score of 11-12. Conclusion: The initial GCS score of 10 may be critical to predict cognitive deficits among TBI patients during 6-12 months of recovery period.

Keywords

• Cognitive dysfunction
• head injury
• neuropsychology
• traumatic brain injury