Alcohol can save patient with brain injury?

Brain injury is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, especially in children and young adults. In the U.S., every year there are approximately 1.4 million cases of brain injury, 50 thousand people were dead. One of the largest causes of brain injury was traffic accidents. Alcohol is a major risk factor for accidents. Approximately 30% to 50% of all patients admitted to the hospital were still under the influence of alcohol when the accident occurred.

Although it was clear that alcohol is responsible for the occurrence of brain injury, there is still much controversy about how the influence of alcohol to cure patients suffering from brain injury. Several animal studies reported that alcohol worsens the patient's condition. However, there are also studies that estimate that alcohol has a protective effect on the nerve. In 2006, several doctors from the University of Toronto examined the relationship between alcohol and mortality in patients with Severe Traumatic Head Injury.

The results of this study are surprising. In patients who have low levels of alcohol in his blood, it has advantages over those who do not consume alcohol. However, in patients who have high alcohol levels, mortality also increased.

This research is still has many weaknesses. There are some biases, such as starting time bias, comorbidities, time of injury. Alcohol is metabolized quickly. Therefore, patients with a BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) greater than 0 at the time of injury may be misclassified as having a BAC of 0 at admission because the alcohol in their blood may be eliminated via metabolism. The researcher minimized this bias by only including patients who arrived directly from the scene of injury. On average, patients arrived at our institution within 1 hour after injury.

Time of injury also biases our results. Alcohol-associated trauma tends to occur during the night and on weekends. Investigators have observed an association between after-hours and weekend hospitalization, and increased mortality. It is presumed that this effect is secondary to the presence of fewer staff, the absence of more experienced staff, and larger relative workloads during these times.

Brain injury is a major cause of death and disability worldwide, especially in children and young adults. In the U.S., every year there are approximately 1.4 million cases of brain injury, 50 thousand people were dead. One of the largest causes of brain injury was traffic accidents. Alcohol is a major risk factor for accidents. Approximately 30% to 50% of all patients admitted to the hospital were still under the influence of alcohol when the accident occurred.

Although it was clear that alcohol is responsible for the occurrence of brain injury, there is still much controversy about how the influence of alcohol to cure patients suffering from brain injury. Several animal studies reported that alcohol worsens the patient's condition. However, there are also studies that estimate that alcohol has a protective effect on the nerve. In 2006, several doctors from the University of Toronto examined the relationship between alcohol and mortality in patients with Severe Traumatic Head Injury.

The results of this study are surprising. In patients who have low levels of alcohol in his blood, it has advantages over those who do not consume alcohol. However, in patients who have high alcohol levels, mortality also increased.

This research is still has many weaknesses. There are some biases, such as starting time bias, comorbidities, time of injury. Alcohol is metabolized quickly. Therefore, patients with a BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) greater than 0 at the time of injury may be misclassified as having a BAC of 0 at admission because the alcohol in their blood may be eliminated via metabolism. The researcher minimized this bias by only including patients who arrived directly from the scene of injury. On average, patients arrived at our institution within 1 hour after injury.

Time of injury also biases our results. Alcohol-associated trauma tends to occur during the night and on weekends. Investigators have observed an association between after-hours and weekend hospitalization, and increased mortality. It is presumed that this effect is secondary to the presence of fewer staff, the absence of more experienced staff, and larger relative workloads during these times.

Perhaps alcohol-based resuscitation fluids have a role in rescuing patients with severe head injuries. But, we better avoid head trauma in particular by avoiding alcohol consumption. Instead of spending money to consume alcohol, we'd better learn seo (in Indonesian means belajar seo) to be able to seduce a beautiful girl dressed in sexy bikinis.

Reference:
Homer C. N. Tien, MD, et al. Association Between Alcohol and Mortality in Patients With Severe Traumatic Head Injury. Arch Surg. 2006;141:1185-1191.