[Prognostic factors about morbidity and lethality in head injury].

Objective: To define the prognostic factors in head injury victims.

Method: Assessment and notification of 555 medical files from victims with head injury assisted at the General Hospital of Bahia during 2001.

Results: We verified morbidity rates of 19.6% and lethality rates of 22.9%, with most deaths occurring in men after the third decade of life; the injuries involved traffic accidents that were responsible for 64 (50.4%) deaths. Older age, traffic accidents and fever were predictors of death in the multivariable analysis. Fever was the only significant predictor of morbidity.

Conclusion: Fever is an independent and modifiable predictor of death and morbidity in patients with traumatic brain injury.