This is a part of podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center on Disorders of Consciousness. Dr. Brian Edlow discusses what current research can—and cannot—tell us about predicting recovery after severe traumatic brain injury. 

We have a long way to go when it comes to providing families with reliable predictions of their loved one's chances of recovery. But we are getting better. And it's important to highlight recent advances in our field, many of which have been made possible by the TBI Model Systems collaboration, whereby tracking patients for years allows us to look backward and figure out what were the clinical factors in the ICU that predicted who would have the best recoveries later on.  

Studies like this have fundamentally changed our understanding of the recovery process. I was taught in medical school that recovery plateaus at about a year. We now have definitive evidence from multiple studies, many of which came from the TBI Model Systems project, that recovery can continue to year two, year five, even year 10 in some patients. So we are better at understanding the trajectory of recovery, the possibilities for meaningful neurologic recovery in which patients are interacting with their loved ones, returning to school or to work. But we still have a long way to go and a lot more research needs to be done to ensure that we're providing families with the most reliable information possible. 

Visit https://msktc.org/tbi and get the answers you need from experts who conduct innovative and high-quality research, provide patient care, and work to improve the health and overall quality of life for people with traumatic brain injury. That’s https://msktc.org/tbi.