According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (“AANS”), a traumatic brain injury (“TBI”) can happen as a result of an impact to the head or an object that strikes and pierces the head. Impaired brain function can happen quickly because the source of head trauma is usually sudden and violent. The symptoms of a head injury can range from mild to severe, so thorough examinations are necessary to determine the extent of any brain damage. (1) The Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) defines a concussion as a type of TBI. The AANS defines a concussion as “a clinical syndrome characterized by an immediate and transient alteration in brain function, including an alteration of mental status and level of consciousness, resulting from mechanical force or trauma.” Even when the cause of a concussion may not seem life threatening, the effects can be serious. (2)
Public awareness of TBIs has increased because of the high incident of sports and recreation related injuries reported in the last decade. During 2001- 2005, an estimated 207,830 emergency department visits for concussions and other TBIs related to sports and recreation activities were reported annually. Of those, 65% were among children between the ages of 5-18 years. (3) Further, for children under the age of 19, trauma is the leading cause of death above all other diseased conditions combined. (4) Basically, there is no such thing as a “minor” concussion.
The time frame immediately following a head injury is crucial to the health of a patient. In the medical field this important time frame is known as the golden hour. The goal of trauma care in the golden hour is to stabilize the patient and reduce the risk of death due to injury associated with the TBI or concussion. After the golden hour, many patients believe they are no longer at risk for brain damage. MRI or CT scans can be normal in patients with mild head injury. In one study, the authors investigated commonly used methods of assessing neurological status in patients with mild TBI. This study found that despite relatively normal examination reports at hospital emergency rooms, 18% of those patients had some brain damage and 5.5% actually required surgery. (5)
While the physical symptoms of a brain injury may be difficult to observe, TBI can cause noticeable emotional and psychological symptoms that include:
- Attention and concentration difficulty
- Memory loss
- Sleep disruption
- Headaches
- Vertigo or dizziness
- Irritability
- Anxiety and depression
- Personality change
- Apathy
- Occupational and social decline
When it comes to trauma patients, uniform care or standard treatment may not be enough. The injury can be unintentional, such as a car accident, or it can be intentional as in a physical assault. The trauma could be blunt or it could be penetrating, however, all head injuries should be treated as serious injuries. If you have questions about TBI or concussion injury, call us to speak with Tom regarding your case. If you cannot come to us, we will come to you.
1. American Association of Neurological Surgeons, www.NeurosurgeryToday.org, last visited February 2012
2. Center for Disease Control and Prevention Reports and Fact Sheets, http://www.cdc.gov, last visited February 2012
3. CDC Report for Nonfatal Head Trauma, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5629a2.htm, last visited February 2012
4. CDC Injury Prevention and Control: Data and Statistics, http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/, last visited February 2012
5. Sherman C. Stein et al., Limitations of Neurological Assessment in Mild Head Injury, 7 Brain Injury 425, 428 (1993).