[Follow up of traumatic brain injury sequels in war victims].

Most evaluation scales used in the follow up of war victims with traumatic brain injury used to date have been focused on physical disability rather than psychological and social dimensions of the handicap. The aim of this study was to assess the applicability of the European Head Injury Evaluation Chart (EHIEC) in the follow up of traumatic brain injury in patients attending the War Veterans Rehabilitation Center in Osijek. The study included 20 patients with traumatic brain injury sustained during the war in Croatia and their families. The EHIEC form was filled out by a professional examiner using data from the patient's medical records and those obtained by evaluation of the patient's physical, mental and social status on his first visit to the Center. Study results showed the majority of these patients to suffer relatively moderate disability consequential to traumatic head injury (mild to moderate hemiparesis, moderate chronic pain, attention impairment, and frequent affective disorder such as depression and anxiety). The patients had significantly reduced capacity for work and impaired community adaptation. However, EHIEC questionnaire was found to suffer from some shortcomings, including time-consuming procedure, problems with interpretation of answers, and inadequate adaptability to local social service. Additional studies are needed to evaluate the questionnaire applicability to outpatient follow up of individuals with traumatic head injury.