Out-of-Hospital Management of Traumatic Brain Injury

The out-of-hospital management of patients with suspected traumatic brain injury should focus on initial management of airway, breathing, and circulation and rapid transport to a trauma center. Adherence to these principles will help mitigate the secondary insults to brain tissue, specifically hypoxemia and hypotension. These patients should be triaged to the nearest trauma centers with neurosurgical capabilities as quickly as possible while minimizing the performance of all but the most necessary interventions to maintain oxygenation and blood pressure.