Abstract
Traumatic brain injury in elderly people imposes an increasing burden on Western society. The outcome is far worse compared with younger victims, which seems logical at first sight. However, specific pathophysiological processes that are responsible for these poorer outcomes largely remain unclear, which makes it difficult to assess individual prognosis. This review summarizes recent specific literature in an attempt to list factors that characterize geriatric traumatic brain injury as different to traumatic brain injury in younger people, and to identify factors that are potential candidates to explain the poorer outcome in this age category. Reduced cardiovascular and endocrinological resilience seem to be potential explanatory variables, compromising cerebral autoregulation and oxidative glucose metabolism, respectively.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.