Severe TBI

Brain injuries can range in scope from mild to severe. Severe TBI is defined as a brain injury resulting in a loss of consciousness of greater than six hours and a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 3 to 8. In severe TBI the patient is comatose, unable to open eyes or follow commands. Severe TBI accounts for more than 57,000 hospitalized patients in the U.S. each year and has the highest mortality rates of any TBI category. Studies involving about 6,000 severe TBI patients (GCS ≤ 8) observed mortality rates ranging from 20 percent to as high as 39 percent, translating into perhaps 11,000 - 22,000 deaths per year in this population.1

The overall hospitalization rate for TBI has been declining; however, this largely is due to a significant reduction in the incidence rate of hospitalization for mild TBI compared with the rates of hospitalization for moderate and severe TBI.2

From 1980 to 1995:

  • Mild TBIs declined 61 percent, from 130 to 51 hospitalizations per 100,000
  • Moderate TBIs declined 19 percent, from 26 to 21 hospitalizations per 100,000
  • Severe TBIs increased 90 percent, from 10 to 19 hospitalizations per 100,0003
  1. Marmarou, A., Lu, J., Butcher, I., McHugh, G.S., Mushkudiani, N.A., Murray, G.D. et al. (2007). J. Neurotrauma., 24(2), 239-250.
  2. Thurman, D. and Guerrero, J. (1999) JAMA., 1; 282(10), 954-957.
  3. Ibid.