the impact of covid-19 on clinical outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury

Background: traumatic brain injury (tbi) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. covid-19 can impact the central nervous system (cns) and hematologic system and appears to affect clinical outcomes and the average cerebral hemorrhage volume (achv) in patients with tbi.objectives: our study focused on evaluating the effects of covid-19 on clinical outcomes and the achv in tbi patients.materials & methods: in this study, we included tbi patients presenting to an academic trauma center in the north of iran and categorized them into two groups: infected with covid-19 and non-infected. a total of 128 tbi patients were identified during 19 months of the covid-19 pandemic.results: road accidents account for 92.2% of tbi. among different types of brain lesions, subdural hematoma (sdh) had a significant relationship with covid-19 (p=0.043). among patients, 13 (10.2%) were on anticoagulants, with no significant differences between the two groups. among the covid-19 patients, those who were anticoagulant users experienced a higher achv than those who did not use this medication (p=0.015). the two groups had no significant difference in the achv and mortality (p=0.758, p=0.601, respectively). the regression analysis indicates no statistically significant relationship between covid-19 and achv (p=0.983) or between covid-19 and the mortality rate of tbi patients (p=0.695).conclusion: the study highlights that tbi patients with covid-19 on anticoagulants show higher achv levels than those without, a pattern missing in non-covid patients. this finding suggests a possible synergistic interaction between covid-19 and anticoagulation, with covid-19 potentially worsening coagulation disorders.