Comparisons among measurement tools in traumatic brain injury outcomes

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered the most important cause of disability among young people and the most common neurological cause of morbidity. Consequently, there is increasing interest in scales to monitor recovery in TBI. Among these scales, two have been widely adopted: the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) and the Disability Rating Scale (DRS). The purpose of this paper is to compare the results found in DRS and in the original and extended GOS. Sixty-three closed-head injury victims, aged between 12 and 65, on an outpatient follow-up program at a trauma center in the city of São Paulo, with 6 months to 3 years post-TBI, had their characteristics and outcomes assessed. When comparing the results obtained by the scales, it was concluded that although the three of them were strongly correlated, extended GOS showed to be more sensitive in detecting changes in victims with better post-traumatic conditions.