Abstract for presentation at 6th World Congress on Brain Injury

The Epidemiology of Traumatic Brain Injury in Tasmania from 1993-2004

  • Dr Mark Slatyer, University of Tasmania, Australia
  • Professor Clive Skilbeck, University of Tasmania, Australia
  • Associate Professor Anthony Bell, University of Tasmania, Australia
  • Dr Albert Erasmus, Royal Hobart Hospital, Australia
  • Ms Kathryn Marsden, University of Tasmania, Australia
  • Associate Professor Alistair Meyer, University of Tasmania, Australia

    • There was a to retrospective review of 14,734 patients with a diagnosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI) admitted to Tasmanian public hospitals for the years 1993-2003. The data was obtained from separation data from these hospitals for the study period and the separation rose from 775 to 1310 per year in that time. This gave an incidence rate of 278 / 100,000 population in 2003-03. During the study data collection changed from ICD-9 to ICD-10 which had significant implications for data collection and analysis. TBI diagnosis included all diagnostic categories and not just the principle diagnosis which underestimates the size of the problem.
    Investigators looked at the length of stay, age and gender distribution of the TBI population. The discharge outcomes were limited in this review though this has lead to a prospective evaluation of the outcome of all patients in southern Tasmania and latter in the year to the whole of the state. Numbers of subjects exceed all predictions based on sample size calculation and retrospective data. In the last two months over 125 subjects had been recruited for full outcome assessment of causation, demographic and neuropsychological data are being presented. Interim analysis will be presented of this major epidemiological study of outcome from all TBI in Tasmania.
    Updated data will presented for the years 2003-2004 at the time of presentation as the study is ongoing.

    Conference Organiser - ICMS Pty Ltd