Stroke Risk High After Traumatic Brain Injury

Stroke Risk High After Traumatic Brain Injury
Monday, August 1, 2011

Medwire News

People who have traumatic brain injury (TBI) should be monitored for the occurrence of stroke, especially during the first few months after injury, say researchers.

Previous studies have shown that TBI patients may develop morbidities including epilepsy, neurologic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, neuroendocrine disorders, and psychiatric diseases.

"Our study leads the way in identifying stroke as an additional neurological problem that may arise following TBI," say Herng-Ching Lin (Taipei Medical University, Taiwan) and co-workers.

The team followed-up more than 23,000 patients with TBI and a comparison group of over 69,000 patients without brain injury, all identified in a health insurance database.

Over the 5-year follow-up, stroke occurred significantly more often in the TBI patients than in the control group, Lin et al report in the journal Stroke.