Date Published

April 1, 2026

Updated For

ALS PCS Version ALS PCS Version 5.2

Question:

What constitutes as tbi? Does every fall were the person struck their head mean that they can not have any pain management or is there a symptom we can look for to narrow down the risk of increasing bleeding? 

Answer:

Traumatic Brain Injury is an injury that affects how the brain works. Not every fall where a person strikes their head negates the use of analgesia (NSAIDs) out of concern for increased intracranial bleeding. The full clinical picture needs to be taken into account.  For example: If a patient hit their head off a desk while bending over: Never lost consciousness, was never disoriented, has no severe mechanism and has no concerning signs of trauma on their physical exam, it would be reasonable to include NSAIDs in your analgesia plan. However, should you be concerned about potential for intracranial bleeding based aspects of the history, mechanism of injury of physical exam, it would be reasonable to withhold NSAIDs. Please make sure to document this rationale on your ACR.

Categories

Keywords

Contraindication, Contraindication TBI, Fall, Injury, TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury

Additional Resources

Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussion. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/traumatic-brain-injury/data-research/facts-stats/index.html