Preface

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has the highest incidence of all common neurological diseases, making it a huge public health burden. TBI is not only an acute disease but also a chronic disease with long-term consequences, including an increased risk of delayed neurodegeneration. It is a risk factor for a variety of neurological diseases, including epilepsy, stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases and is the leading cause of death among young people as well as the leading cause of death and disability in all ages in all countries. Although research in the field has generated new knowledge about TBI, many needs of TBI patients are not being met. Thus, there is an urgent need to address deficiencies in prevention and care to reduce the huge burden and social costs of TBI. This book discusses the progress of TBI prevention, clinical nursing, research, and challenges in TBI care.

The book is divided into two sections and seven chapters. The first section addresses treatment philosophy. The second section focuses on progress in research and treatment of several complex conditions of brain trauma. Chapter 1 is the introductory chapter, and Chapter 2 discusses prehospital and emergency room airway management in TBI; Chapter 3 examines neuroinflammation in TBI; Chapter 4 reviews penetrating craniocerebral injury in pediatric patients; Chapter 5 discusses traumatic optic neuropathy; Chapter 6 focuses on the traumatic injury of neurovascular arteries and their neurointerventional treatment, and Chapter 7 presents recent advances in the development of biofluid-based prognostic biomarkers of diffuse axonal injury.

We would like to thank all the authors for their contributions. We would also like to acknowledge the encouragement, motivation, and assistance from Tsinghua Precision Medicine Foundation (20219990008), Tsinghua University, China, and the Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals Incubating Program (PX2020039. We are grateful to Author Service Manager Blanka Gugic at IntechOpen for her dedication and hard work to ensure the smooth publication of this book. Finally, we owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Zhongcheng Wang,

academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the founder and pioneer of Chinese neurosurgery, for without his tireless efforts over the decades, Chinese neurosurgery would not be what it is today.

## **Xianli Lv**

Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, School of Clinical Medicine, Beijing, China

## **Yi Guo**

Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital, Beijing, China

## **Gengsheng Mao**

Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
