Every 15 seconds, someone in the United States sustains a traumatic brain injury resulting from external forces such as a car crash or a fall. Every five minutes, a person is disabled as a result.

Dr. Randall Chesnut, a neurosurgeon at Harborview Medical Center, is UW Medicine's lead investigator in a national study of two standard-care approaches to monitoring and treating TBI.  In one approach, care is focused on preventing high intracranial pressure caused by a swollen brain. The other approach aims to prevent both intracranial pressure and low brain oxygen levels.  The study intends to generate data-based evidence about whether one approach is safer and more effective.