Citation

Feng JF, van Veen E, Yang C, Huijben JA, Lingsma HF, Gao GY, Jiang J, Maas A. J. Neurotrauma 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

University Hospital Antwerp, Neurosurgery, Edegem, Belgium; Andrew.Maas@uza.be.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2019.6900

PMID

32174214

Abstract

TBI poses a huge public health and societal problem worldwide. Uncertainty exists on how care system and treatment approaches for TBI worked in China may differ from those in Europe. Better knowledge on this is important to facilitate interpretation of findings reported by Chinese researchers and to inform opportunities for collaborative studies. We aimed to investigate concordance and variations in TBI care between Chinese and European neurotrauma centers. Investigators from 52 centers in China and 68 in Europe involved in the CENTER-TBI study were invited to complete provider profiling (PP) questionnaires, which covered the main aspects of care system and treatment approaches of TBI care. Participating Chinese and European centers were mainly publicly funded and academic. More centers in China indicated available dedicated neuro-intensive care than European (98% versus 60%) and treatment decisions in the ICU were mainly determined by neurosurgeons (58%) in China, while in Europe (neuro)intensivists often took the lead (61%). The ambulance dispatching system was automatic in half of Chinese centers (49%), whereas selective dispatching was more common in European centers (74%). For treatment of refractory intracranial hypertension, a decompressive craniectomy was more frequently regarded as general policy in China compared to Europe (89% vs 45%). We observed both concordance and substantial variations regarding to the various aspects of TBI care between Chinese and European centers. These findings are fundamental to guide future research, and offer opportunities for collaborative comparative effectiveness research to identify best practices.

Language: en

Keywords

CLINICAL TRIAL; THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES FOR THE TREATMENT OF CNS INJURY; TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY