SYMPTOMATIC TREATMENT OF MILD TBI

The hallmark of treatment for service members who sustain an mTBI is relative rest and initial symptom management. Service members with mTBI should be managed in accordance with DoDI 6490.11 and the published DoD Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence MACE 2 and Progressive Return to Activity Clinical Recommendation.

Many casualties with positive (elevated) results with TBI the whole blood biomarker will not have evidence of brain injury or intracranial hemorrhage on head CT but will have brain injury evident on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).11 However, a TBI whole blood biomarker result of “elevated” is not FDA approved for the diagnosis of mTBI and should not be used as the sole indicator of mTBI diagnosis; a clinical evaluation of the casualty is necessary to make a diagnosis of mTBI. At this time, it is not known whether casualties with positive (elevated) TBI whole blood biomarkers but no evidence of injury on head CT should be treated differently from casualties with negative (not elevated) TBI whole blood biomarkers. Therefore, individuals with elevated biomarkers and a negative head CT should be managed as individuals with mTBI as per DoD guidelines cited in the preceding paragraph.