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Abstract
Many head-injured patients have been drinking alcohol, and it has been suggested that
the effect of a raised blood alcohol may be to potentiate brain damage after head
injury. To investigate this, a study was carried out on 38 consecutive, recently head-injured
patients admitted to the Glasgow Neurosurgical Unit. Conscious level, blood alcohol
and serum creatine kinase BB (CKBB) were measured on admission (the latter by radioimmunoassay).
Conscious level related strongly to outcome (χ2 = 11.678, P < 0.001), and serum CKBB (χ2 = 8.333, P < 0.01) but not to blood alcohol level. In patients with severe head injury admitted
to a neurosurgical unit, coma is more likely to be due to the injury than to the blood
alcohol level, and alcohol does not adversely affect outcome in such patients.
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
September 23,
1985
Identification
Copyright
© 1986 Published by Elsevier Inc.
