IT’S TRAUMA TUESDAY is a Free Weekly Newsletter

For nurses and other clinicians practicing anywhere along the trauma care spectrum

The Brain-Heart Connection

11/10/2026

Test Your Trauma Care Knowledge

Article of the Week

A Traumatic Connection: How TBI Affects the Heart

This article highlights that traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects more than the brain—it can also trigger heart complications via the “brain-heart axis.” Disrupted nervous system signaling, an excessive stress response, and inflammation can contribute to abnormal heart rhythms, elevated troponin levels, and reduced cardiac pumping ability. Damage to the brain’s blood vessels may further increase this vulnerability, and some cardiac changes may occur without obvious symptoms. 

For bedside trauma nurses, these findings reinforce the importance of monitoring changes in cardiac rhythm and hemodynamic status and promptly communicating concerns, because heart dysfunction can further compromise blood flow to the injured brain.

Click the link to view the article or watch a short AI-generated article summary (4 min 14 sec).

Media of the Month

Does Your Patient Have a Hole in the Head?

The Brain Trauma Foundation first published its Penetrating Traumatic Brain Injury (pTBI) Guidelines in 2001. The Foundation has now released the long-awaited 2nd Edition. 

To download a FREE poster version of the new pTBI management algorithm, click the link.

Fun Facts

The Drool Pool

Did you know that, over a lifetime, a person produces enough saliva to fill two swimming pools? Yuck!

Trauma Trained & Trauma Ready

Resuscitation-based courses focus on prehospital and ED patient care. But what about the next three hours, three days, or three weeks?

The TCAR and PCAR courses were specifically designed to address the learning needs of nurses who care for trauma patients in the inpatient phase of care.