Post-traumatic hyperoxia after pediatric TBI

ABSTRACT

Objective

Hyperoxia has been suggested as a mechanism for secondary injury following adult traumatic brain injury (TBI), but its effects have not been well described in pediatric patients.

Methods

Pediatric (≤18yo) TBI patients were identified in a prospective institutional registry from October 2008 to April 2022. The first, highest, and the Area Under the Curve (AUC) PaO2 in the first 24 hours were collected and calculated for each patient from arterial blood gas reports after admission to the ICU. Neurological outcome after 6 months was measured using dichotomized modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and Glasgow Outcome Scale – Extended (GOS-E). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine if the three measurements for hyperoxia predicted an unfavorable outcome after controlling for well-established clinical and imaging predictors of outcome.

Results

We identified 98 pediatric patients with severe accidental TBI during the study period. Hyperoxia (PaO2 > 300 mmHg) occurred in 33% of the patients. The presence of elevated PaO2 values, determined by all three evaluations of hyperoxia, was not associated with unfavorable outcome after 6 months.

Conclusion

Utilizing multiple methods to assess exposure, hyperoxia was present in a substantial number of patients with severe TBI but was not associated with an unfavorable outcome.

KEYWORDS:

• Hyperoxia
• traumatic brain injury
• pediatric
• GOS-E
• mRS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics

This study has been approved by the UC Davis IRB under the ‘exempt’ category (IRB ID: 1833775–2).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2024.2354851

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.