The purpose of the subcommittee on trauma of the CSNS is to provide a forum for CSNS members, delegates, and guests to discuss issues of trauma coverage, advances in trauma care, trauma manpower issues, and reimbursement for trauma services. The coverage of emergency rooms and, in particular, patients with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries has become one of the most pressing topics in neurosurgery today, and this is even more the case in the private sector where residents and fellows are not able to help neurosurgeons with this coverage.

Historically, care of the neurotrauma patient has been viewed by most neurosurgeons as a responsibility that went along with the more lucrative and (usually) more gratifying work of their elective practices. More and more, however, neurosurgeons are focusing on their private practices and feeling unable or unwilling to cover emergency rooms in the hospitals in which they work. This has progressed to the point where many neurosurgeons intentionally do not ask for cranial operating privileges in the institutions where they practice. Many issues add into the difficulty of taking care of the neurotrauma patient, including decreasing reimbursement overall and in particular for these patients, the perception if not the reality of increased risk of litigation from these patients, the shrinking neurosurgical workforce, and increased demands by smaller and smaller hospitals to have formal neurosurgical coverage of their emergency rooms.

At each and every CSNS meeting, the subcommittee on trauma meets in advance of the general sessions to discuss new issues that have arisen in the areas from which subcommittee members hail, as well as issues that are being debated at the national level. The committee reviews resolutions which involve trauma issues as well as workforce issues related to trauma coverage and reimbursement in order to speak to these issues when the resolutions are discussed in the general session. Representation within the subcommittee of both academic and private practice viewpoints is solid, with neurosurgeons from both backgrounds participating. Several recent consensus statements on the part of the CSNS regarding trauma issues have been created in and distributed from this subcommittee, including most recently a consensus statement on the role of the non-neurosurgeon and the care of the brain-injured patient. Any questions or concerns about neurotrauma issues on the part of any practicing neurosurgeon can be directed through their CSNS delegates to the neurotrauma committee for consideration or can be directed to the chairperson or vice-chairperson.