New research shows China's head trauma treatment superior to the West

China's first multi-center and observational cohort study on patients with traumatic brain injury has found that the treatment effect of severe patients suffering from the injury in China is better than that in Europe.

A paper about the research was published as a cover article on the website of the United Kingdom-based medical journal Lancet Neurology on Tuesday.

According to research, the mortality rates of patients with head trauma that either temporarily or permanently disrupts brain function in intensive care units in China and Europe were 11.4 percent and 19 percent respectively.

The European study was conducted in 22 countries across the continent as well as Israel.

Such improvements in China can be derived from standard diagnosis and treatment, personalized precision care and therapies as well the overall upgrade of the nation's public health system and pre-hospital first aid levels, said Jiang Jiyao, corresponding author of the research and a professor of neurosurgery at Renji Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

"Through efforts over the past two to three decades, most tertiary hospitals in China have established neurological ICU (NICU) and most medical institutions at county-level have set up surgical ICU (SICU), enabling neurologists and surgeons to be involved in joint treatment for patients together with ICU medical teams," said Jiang, a leading neurosurgical expert in the country.

"Meanwhile, the ICU teams have accumulated more and more experience and capabilities in respiratory support and emergency treatment for patients in critical conditions."

Jiang's team led the research, which collected data of more than 13,600 brain injury patients who were admitted to hospitals in 22 provincial-level regions across the country.

Xia Qiang, Party secretary of Renji Hospital, said that the results of the research shows that China's ability in treating patients with traumatic brain injury has surpassed the West to some extent.

The research also found that 74 percent of the patients were men with a median age of 48, which meant that the injury was a blow to the society's labor force, said Gao Guoyi, first author of the paper.

Road-traffic accidents were the main cause in 50 percent of such injuries in China. Gao said the findings related to the cause of injury, treatment and intervention methods and patients' survival rate will provide references for health authorities when making policies regarding traumas.