What's new in emergencies, trauma and shock? Traumatic Brain Injury Research in India: Getting shape, taking momentum.

It is extremely encouraging that “trauma related injuries research” including “traumatic brain injury (TBI) research” has become a priority for researchers and has been recognized as a major public health problem by many with growing efforts to address TBI on priority basis.[1234] Good enough data have been published on TBI from different parts of the country (from urban as well as rural institutions) those address issues related to TBI demographics, prehospital care, management and outcome characteristics.[12456]

A study by Shekhar et al.[7] is another significant contribution which further add to this growing body of literature from India and thus help to understand the spectrum and pattern of TBI patients care in India. The authors very well-recognized that road traffic injuries by motorized vehicle were the major cause of injury on city roads; TBI mainly affects young adults, although mild TBI is most common, but it was the severe TBI which was the main cause of mortality.[7] Other very important fact which have been pointed out was that private vehicles were the most common mode to transport patients, up to 40% cases general public/policeman provided first aid and they did not have any formal training to do so.[7] Many other studies from India document the demographic, clinical, management and outcome characteristics[1234568910] and try to identify and explore the similar issues as the authors have raised in their work (i.e., TBI in India “requires appropriate attention from researchers and policymakers,” “need to develop effective evidence — based interventions” with “better reporting and documentation of cases”).[7]

As Pal et al.[3] have raised issues in the context of emergency trauma care “no uniform acceptance of standardization as the norm” largely holds true for TBI care. In spite of the fact that these study address the common public health issue that is, “TBI;” it is apparent that in India still the approach to TBI research is confined to few institutes and individuals and largely remains fragmented. A cost-effective approach which used a well-designed proforma to collect data of “TBI Registry” has been described from India that can be managed with limited resources and under active development.[910] It is the right time to make collaborative efforts from all interested research institutions and create a “TBI Registry” to address the growing burden of traumatic brain injuries.