The Brain Trauma Foundation (BTF) was founded in 1986 to develop research on traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury , also known as intracranial injury, occurs when an external force traumatically injures the brain. TBI can be classified based on severity, mechanism , or other features...

 (TBI). Since its formation the foundation's mission has expanded to improving the outcome of TBI patients nationwide through working to implement evidence-based guidelines for prehospital and in-hospital care, quality-improvement programs, and coordinating
educational programs for medical professionals.

TBI Guidelines

The Brain Trauma Foundation has developed the Guidelines for the Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, first published in 1995 and revised twice, most recently in 2007. The foundation has also developed companion guidelines for pediatric TBI, prehospital management of TBI, early indicators and prognosis of severe TBI, surgical management of TBI, and field management for combat medic

Combat medic

Combat medics are trained military personnel who are responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield. They are also responsible for providing continuing medical care in the absence of a readily available physician, including care for disease and battle injury...

s. The guidelines seek to create uniformity in TBI care all over the world.

An independent analysis of the effect of the Brain Trauma Foundation’s (BTF) guidelines on traumatic brain injury (TBI) outcome and cost savings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...

 (CDC) found that if the BTF guidelines were used more routinely, there would be a 50% decrease in deaths, improved quality of life and a savings of $262 million in annual medical costs, $43 million in annual rehabilitation costs and a lifetime societal cost of $3.84 billion.

The guidelines have been endorsed by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons

American Association of Neurological Surgeons

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons is a professional body based in the United States with more than 8,000 members worldwide. The AANS is dedicated to advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to provide the highest quality of neurosurgical care to the public...

, the World Health Organization

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

 Neurotrauma Committee, and the New York State Department of Health. The guidelines have been distributed to all neurosurgeons in the United States. The guidelines provide medical personnel a protocol which has been proven to improve the survival and outcomes of TBI patients and has been shown to reduce rates of mortality.

Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring

One of the main facets of the guidelines is the recommendation to monitor intracranial pressure

Intracranial pressure

Intracranial pressure is the pressure inside the skull and thus in the brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid . The body has various mechanisms by which it keeps the ICP stable, with CSF pressures varying by about 1 mmHg in normal adults through shifts in production and absorption of CSF...

 in treating severe TBI patients. This process is called ICP Monitoring.

Medical Advisory Board

• M. Ross Bullock, MD, PhD, Chairman – Virginia Commonwealth University
• Mary Kay Bader, MSN,CCRN,CNRN – Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center
• Robert M. Domeier, MD – National Association of EMS Physicians
• James Ecklund, MD, FACS – Walter Reed Army Medical Center
• Thomas J. Esposito, MD, MPH, FACS – Loyola University
• Steven R. Flanagan, MD
  Steven Flanagan
  Steven R. Flanagan, M.D. is a nationally renowned expert in the field of Traumatic Brain Injury and is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, and the Medical Director of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at the...
  
   – Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
  Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
  The Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine is the world's first and largest university-affiliated center devoted entirely to inpatient/outpatient care, research and training in rehabilitation medicine. It is part of the NYU Langone Medical Center and operated under the auspices of the...
  
  
• Thomas A. Gennarelli, MD – Medical College of Wisconsin
• Ronald L. Hayes, PhD – Banyan Biomakers, Inc.
• E. Brooke Lerner, PhD, EMT-P – Medical College of Wisconsin
• Peter B. Letarte, MD, FACS – Loyola University Medical Center
• Harvey S. Levin, PhD – Baylor College of Medicine
• Andrew I.R. Maas, MD, PhD – Enasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Geoffrey T. Manley, MD, PhD – University of California, San Francisco
• Michael Pasquale, MD – Lehigh Valley Hospital
• Peter T. Pons, MD, FACEP – University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
• Claudia Robertson, MD – Baylor College of Medicine
• Franco Servadei, MD – M. Bufalini Hospital, Cesena, Italy
• John Whyte, MD, PhD – Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute