Prognostic factors for life expectancy after penetrating head injury.

Survival curves were made for 190 World War II veterans with penetrating head injuries, and for 106 WW II veterans with peripheral nerve injuries who matched the subjects with head injuries with respect to age at injury, years of formal education, and preinjury intelligence-test score. The results indicated that penetrating head injury coupled with posttraumatic epilepsy shortened life expectancy in subjects who survived the early postinjury period, but that head injury alone did not. Educational level was also a significant variable independent of seizures: subjects with more education survived longer than those with less education. Age at injury and the difference between preinjury and postinjury intelligence-test scores did not predict survival status.