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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Asian J Neurosurg 2018; 13(03): 685-688
DOI: 10.4103/ajns.AJNS_232_16
Original Article

Serum magnesium as a marker of neurological outcome in severe traumatic brain injury patients

Raghavendra Nayak
Department of Neurosurgery, Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata, West Bengal
,
Sanjeev Attry
Department of Neurosurgery, Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata, West Bengal
,
Samarendra Ghosh
Department of Neurosurgery, Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata, West Bengal
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Hypomagnesemia is postulated as one of the important determinants of outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI) through its effect on secondary injuries to neurons. Aims and Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between serum magnesium level and neurological outcome in patients admitted with severe head injury. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study, patients admitted with severe TBI were recruited and dichotomized into low serum magnesium group and normal serum magnesium group based on the initial serum magnesium level. Data were collected regarding age, sex, and Glasgow Coma Scale at admission. Neurological outcome of the patients in these groups was assessed using Glasgow Outcome Scale at 6 months. Results: Seventy-two patients (male = 50, female = 22) with a mean (±standard deviation) age of 42.5 (±12.7) years were studied. Forty-two (58%) patients had low serum magnesium level (<1.3 mEq/L) at admissions. At 6-month follow-up, 81% of patients with poor neurological outcome had low serum magnesium as compared to 19% of patients with good outcome (P = 0.01). Hypomagnesemia was associated with poor neurological outcome (odds ratio = 2.1, P = 0.04, 95% confidence interval = 1.0–8.8) on regression analysis. Conclusion: Hypomagnesemia appears to be an independent prognostic marker in patients with severe TBI.

Key-words:

Glasgow Outcome Scale - head injury - serum magnesium


Publication History

Article published online:
14 September 2022

© 2018. Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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