Brain Injury Center

Boston Children's Hospital's Brain Injury Center aims to provide the highest level of care to children and adolescents who have sustained a brain injury.

The Center coordinates care across several services—including the Trauma Center, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Sports Medicine and Neuropsychology—to enhance the health and well-being of patients, minimize distress, and prevent longer-term difficulties. Access to acute and follow-up care is an essential component of this multidisciplinary center.

The Brain Injury Center is helping to define the best practices in the way brain injuries are cared for, from early response through inpatient care and long-term follow-up.

Team members are actively involved in injury prevention programs within the community, the training of medical staff on injury care and treatment, and research with the long-term goal of reducing the incidence of injuries and improving outcomes for those who have been injured.

While more than 300 children with brain injuries are admitted to Boston Children's each year, 80 to 90 percent of pediatric brain injuries are mild.

There is a large degree of variation in the definition and diagnostic criteria for these injuries, with concussion or mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) being the most common. Regardless of severity, acquired head injuries can impact a child's physical, cognitive, emotional and social functioning.

The Brain Injury Center provides comprehensive acute and follow-up care with the goal of managing symptoms in patients diagnosed with concussion/mTBI, as well as more severe traumatic brain injury.

Goals of our Brain Injury Center:

• to provide evidence-based diagnostic, clinical management, follow-up services for patients diagnosed with brain injury.
• to develop research protocols to increase the knowledge base and evaluate the effectiveness of current management tools
• to educate the next generation of health care practitioners and increase awareness in the community through continued training and outreach programs.