Result of nationwide survey of the management of severe head injury in Japan.

A nationwide survey of the management of severe head injury was carried out in 1988 by sending the questionnaires to 1,088 main neurosurgical hospitals in Japan. The items of the survey included annual number of patients with closed severe head injury (GCS score of 8 or less), place of patients' care, type of neuromonitorings, medical and surgical treatments, severity and outcome measures. Out of 1,088 questionnaires, 457 (42% response rate) were collected and analyzed. Characteristic features of the management status were the scarcity of patients annually in each institution, limited use of specific neuromonitorings, and variety of the actual managements. Aggressive managements such as hyperventilation, barbiturate and/or hypothermia have been employed in many hospitals to control high ICP. External and internal decompression are also used widely for intradural hematomas. These results clarified not only present status of Japan but also the problems to be solved in the actual managements.