Outcome and Refractory Factor of Intensive Treatment for Geriatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Analysis of 1165 Cases Registered in the Japan Neurotrauma Data Bank

Objective With the increase in the aged population, geriatric traumatic brain injury (gTBI) is also rapidly increasing in Japan. There is thus a need to review the effect of intensive treatments for gTBIs. The aim of this study was 1) to assess how intensive treatments influenced patient outcome and 2) to identify the refractory factor against these intensive treatments in gTBI, from the Japan Neurotrauma Data Bank (JNTDB). Methods Of all 3194 patients in the JNTDB, 1165 (≥65 years old) with severe gTBIs were enrolled in this study. The clinical features and their outcomes based on the Glasgow Outcome Scale on discharge and 6 months after injury were compared. Results Intensive treatments were administered to 71.4% of all patients with severe gTBI showing a significant increase over 15 years. Accordingly, mortality decreased significantly (from 62.7% to 51.1%, P  = 0.001). On the other hand, severely disabled dependent survivors, who need daily help from others for living, increased accordingly (from 63.2% to 68.4%). The existence of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) rather than the patient’s age was identified as the strongest refractory factor (odds ratio, 5.762; 95% confidence interval, 1.317–25.216) against intensive treatment. Conclusions This study clarified that 1) intensive treatments are associated with higher survival rates (however, they also increase the incidence of severely disabled survivors) and 2) the strongest refractory factor for intensive treatment in cases of severe gTBI was not age but the existence of IVH. These results warrant further establishment of a seamless strategy for both the acute and the chronic phase of gTBI.