Traumatic Brain Injury: Is There a Role for Targeted Temperature Management?

Purpose: Traumatic brain injury is one of the primary causes of death and neurological impairment in the United States and can lead to detrimental long-term disability if a patient survives.1 To reduce the unfavorable outcomes for adult patients, research has focused on the innovative treatment with targeted temperature management. This review will discuss the role for its use and highlight its efficacy and benefit on adult patients with traumatic brain injury. Recent findings: Strong evidence supports the use of targeted temperature management on post cardiac arrest patients and neonatal hypoxic encephalopathy.2 However, the evidence for its use on adult patients with traumatic brain injury remains controversial.3 Most studies have not demonstrated efficacy of targeted temperature management on improving neurological outcomes or reducing mortality and morbidity in patients with traumatic brain injury, however treatment is being used as standard protocol to maintain normothermia and has shown promising neuroprotective efficacy.3 Conclusion: This review demonstrates that the use of normothermic-TTM on adult patients with traumatic brain injury is effective in controlling elevated intracranial pressure and for refractory intracranial hypertension, for the treatment of fever burden, and improving neurological outcomes and reducing mortality. Today, normothermic-TTM is used as standard protocol on traumatic brain injury patients and has shown promising neuroprotective efficacy. Keywords: Targeted temperature management, TTM, therapeutic hypothermia, TH, traumatic brain injury, TB