Inge M Verhoeven, Marjan J Klippel, Monique A Berger, Frederike van Markus and Arend J de Kloet
Background: Neurocognitive deficits following pediatric acquired brain injury (ABI) often remain under reported, whereas these sequalae impact several domains of activities and participation. Objective: To screen neurocognitive consequences of pediatric ABI in a hospital-based cohort using both a professional and parent reported screening tool. Methods: Follow-up study including children with a hospital-based diagnosis, aged 4-20 years at onset of ABI, using the Processing Speed and Attention subtests of the Amsterdamse Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT) and the parent reported Brain Injury Alert (BIA). Age, type and severity of injury were used in analysis as associated factors. Results: 103 children, aged 4 up to 20 years (median 13y) at onset of ABI, were assessed 2 years later. 89 (86%) on injuries were classified as mild and 80 (78%) had a traumatic cause (TBI). The study cohort responded more accurate (accuracy 29.4-30.4%, >1 SD) and slow (inhibition speed 25.5-38.2%, >1 SD) on the ANT tasks compared to the norm group without neurocognitive deficits. One or more cognitive problems were reported by 62 (65%) of the parents, 1 or more social emotional problems by 66 (69%) and 1 or more cognitive and social emotional problem by 70 (77%). Type (NTBI) and severity (moderate/severe) of injury were associated with worse neurocognitive outcome in both professional (ANT) and parent reported (BIA) outcome, whereas age (younger age group) was only associated with parent (BIA) outcome. Conclusion: Neurocognitive problems were found in this hospital-based cohort of children with ABI, especially in the older age and NTBI group, with parents reporting strikingly more problems than professionals.