The proper way to measure the effectiveness of a therapy is to measure the outcomes of the people receiving it. The questions of what to measure and what is successful, however, still remain unanswered. People with brain injuries, their close friends and family, medical professionals and paraprofessionals and insurance firms all have different expectations and definitions of a measurable successful outcome. The authors suggest that therapies and facilities be examined in their larger contexts and that a uniform set of definitions ought to be adopted for outcome studies. Age and Outcome of Traumatic Brain Injury in Infants and Children Paul C. Francel, MD, PhD and Brian E. Snell, MD Trauma is the major cause of death in children under the age of 15, with brain injury as the specific cause of 40 out of every 100 childhood trauma deaths.
Boys seem to be at a higher risk of brain injury, and their injuries generally are more severe.
Often, children who sustained a brain injury showed personality problems, and their families were in financial trouble, before the injury took place. The causes of brain injuries in children vary as they get older. Child abuse and falls are common causes among the youngest children, but car crashes and injuries sustained while walking, bicycling or engaging in sports are more common as children age. The types of damage also are different at different ages. Newborns can sustain skull fractures and intracranial hemorrhages from forceps deliveries and birth anoxia.