Complicated versus uncomplicated mild traumatic brain injuries: A comparison of psychological, cognitive, and post-concussion symptom outcomes

Introduction: A complicated mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is defined as mild by all clinical severity indicators but is complicated due to a traumatic intracranial abnormality visible on neuroimaging. Researchers have reported mixed findings regarding whether neuropsychological and functional outcomes following complicated MTBI are worse than, or similar to, outcomes following uncomplicated MTBI. This study examined patients referred from a Taiwanese emergency department to a neurosurgical outpatient clinic. Participants with complicated MTBI, uncomplicated MTBI, and those who did not undergo head computed tomography (CT) were compared on psychological, neuropsychological, and post-concussion symptom outcomes within 21 days of injury. Method: Participants with complicated MTBI (n = 42), uncomplicated MTBI (n = 77), and no head CT (n = 172) completed the Paced Auditory Serial Attention Test, Taiwanese Word Sequence Learning Test, a semantic Verbal Fluency Test, the Checklist of Post-Concussion Symptoms, and the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Results: No significant differences were observed between groups on any measure. For individual post-concussion symptoms, dizziness, anxiety, and attention difficulty were endorsed more often after uncomplicated MTBIs, but these group differences were not significant after controlling for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: Participants with complicated MTBIs did not have worse acute or subacute outcomes than participants with uncomplicated MTBIs or no head CT. These results are consistent with many studies finding comparable outcomes between those with complicated and uncomplicated MTBIs. This study is limited by small sample size and minimal information on intracranial abnormalities, broadly categorizing groups based on positive or negative neuroimaging as opposed to specific lesion types and locations.