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 To provide a picture of contemporary practice, a survey was carried out of severely and moderately head injured patients admitted to 67 `neuro' centres in 12 European countries. 1,005 adult head injuries were recruited over a three month period. Sixty items of information on demography, clinical features, investigations, management and early complications were captured on a simple, two-page questionnaire and, information on outcome at six months on a third page.

 The median age of the subjects was 38 years, 74% were male and 51% injured in road traffic accidents; 57% of patients were transferred to the `neuro' centre from another hospital. Assessment of clinical responsiveness was limited by the use of sedation and intubation and information from four early time points (pre-hospital, arrival at the Accident and Emergency department, post-resuscitation, and arrival at the `neuro' unit) was …