Life Expectancy and Causes of Death in a Group of Head-Injured Veterans of World War I

Abstract

• The life spans and causes of death were examined for a group of Bavarian veterans of World War I who had suffered head injuries and for comparable control subjects who had not. The occurrence of posttraumatic fits was a significant prognostic factor for a higher death rate after the age of 50 years. Other indicators of the severity of injury did not lead to differences in the death rates. There were significantly more deaths due to cerebrovascular causes in the head-injured group than in the control group, but no subgroup was found to have significantly more cerebrovascular deaths than any other.