Experimental modeling of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in animals has identified several potential means and interventions that might have beneficial applications for treating traumatic brain injury clinically. Several of these interventions have been applied and tried with humans that are at different phases of testing (completed, prematurely terminated and others in progress). The promising results achieved in the laboratory with animal models have not been replicated with human trails as expected. This review will highlight some insights and significance attained via laboratory animal modeling of TBI as well as factors that require incorporation into the experimental studies that could help in translating results from laboratory to the bedside. Major progress has been made due to laboratory studies; in explaining the mechanisms as well as pathophysiological features of brain damage after TBI. Attempts to intervene in the cascade of events occurring after TBI all rely heavily on the knowledge from basic laboratory investigations. In looking to discover treatment, this review will endeavor to sight and state some central discrepancies between laboratory models and clinical scenarios.
Keywords: animal models; secondary insults; traumatic brain injury.