So what is Brain Injury anyway?

Brain Injury can be described in several ways.  Brain Injury from a cause such as a hit on the head.  This is termed Traumatic Brain Injury.  There can be brain injury from a stroke or Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA). This kind of brain injury usually comes in 2 forms.  Embolic (a clot), or hemorrhagic (a bleed).  There is also another kind of brain injury called an anoxic brain injury.  This is when you get too little oxygen to the brain.  This happens in choking, drug overdose, drowning, hanging, etc. There are other examples that fall in the category known as open, or closed head injuries, penetrating injuries, etc. I don't want to get too detailed in this discussion, so I am keeping things just to the basics.

Today I am going to focus on the one kind of brain injury.  This is Traumatic Brain Injury.  Traumatic Brain Injury can be classified as 3 different categories.  Mild, moderate, and severe.

MILD Traumatic Brain Injury, probably is the most common.  You might fall, just hit your head and you might not have any real issues.  You however, feel like you are just not right for a day or more.  We used to refer to this as having a concussion.  The symptoms usually go away in a few days, but can last longer.  I want to caution you that you really should seek medical attention for any head injury.  Don't diagnose it yourself. Go and talk to your doctor! If you have lost consciousness, go to an emergency department or urgent care.

My girlfriends daughter was sliding down a slide at school and another girl met her at the bottom with a cement brick to the head.  My friends daughter Mic said she blacked out for a moment.  The other kid ran.  This is an example of a mild traumatic brain injury.  (kids can be tough). My friend called me right away and I sent them to the ER.  Yes, I know it inconvenient.  Yes, you will be there for a while.  Yes, most likely they will do a CT scan to make sure there is no bleeding inside the brain.  As long as everything looks fine on the scan and there is no "clinical Picture", like headache, blurred vision, change in speech, change in consciousness, inability to walk or difficulty walking in general, they will send you home.  If you have any of these symptoms they will watch you or your family member for a while. For the record, Mic was sent home later that day and she is doing fine.

How severe the TBI is may go from MILD; a short term change in how you think for a brief change in your consciousness to SEVERE; a longer period of being unconscious or not remembering the event (amnesia). Several articles have reported that 80% of TBI cases are classified as mild, 10% are MODERATE, and 10% are severe.

In my next post I will talk about MODERATE and SEVERE Traumatic Brain Injury.

Hope to see you soon.

Suzicho12