Head injuries in Scottish hospitals. Scottish Head Injury Management Study.

A study was designed to discover how patients with a head injury are managed in Scotland. Preliminary findings based on retrospective examination of hospital records describe and compare the characteristics of 3035 patients arriving at accident and emergency departments, 1181 admitted to primary surgical wards, and 424 treated in neurosurgical units in Scotland, excluding the Lothians. These data are being used for further studies to define the needs of these patients and to explore alternative management policies which could make better use of existing health-service resources.