Bad Breath in traumatic brain injury

[jelisabethk]

I asked the neurosurgeon why the patient's with traumtic brain injury tend to have a specific smell on their breath regardless of bathing, oral care etc. He was able to explain that the smell is due to glutamate that is released by the death of breain cells. There is not anything that can be done to remove the smell.

[Red Kryptonite]

Hmmm, very interesting. I work hospice so I'll remember this the next time we get a brain-injured patient.

[vanilla bean]

Interesting - I always wondered about that. You also piqued my curiosity, so I just spent the last hour googling and reading about glutamate and glutamate storm. Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting about your inquiry!

[HikingEDRN, BSN, RN]

Interesting. I have never heard of this and I have seen traumatically brain injured patients but only in the ED. I see you are in the neuro ICU so I assume this develops later?

[spacemonkey15]

I've always been led to believe that "head injury breath" as we call it was because of blood/CSF/goo, so this is interesting. I'll have a little look about on the internets when I'm off in a few days time :)