What You Need To Know About Brain Trauma

There are many different types of brain injury a person can sustain. The most common form of brain injury or brain trauma is known as traumatic brain injury or TBI. This occurs when a sudden trauma from a head injury results in brain damage.

This can occur either from closed head injuries like a blow to the head, or a penetrating head injury where something ends up through the skull and into the brain. These injuries can damage one or more parts of the brain and as a result can leave people dead, disabled, or in lucky cases, nothing at all. The symptoms shown when the brain is injured can be very hard to determine in mild cases, with severe retardation present in more severe cases.

The damage from head injuries can either be diffuse, which effects more than one area of the brain, or focal, which effects just one area of the brain. Diffuse trauma can be caused by a coma, severe fall, or head injuries such as a concussion. A concussion shakes the brain inside the skull and has the potential to do a lot of damage in different areas. Focal trauma can be caused by things like a nasty fall onto a sharp rock, an automobile crash where an object penetrates the skull but doesn't go very deep, and similar localized traumas. Many times, if the skull isn't fractured or penetrated, a severe trauma can cause a cerebral contusion also known as bruising of the brain. Bleeding of the brain, or around the brain, can be caused by both focal and diffuse injuries.

Nature's helmet is the skull but unfortunately, the skull isn't that resistant to the abuse sustained by people today as it was millions of years ago. We travel at very high speeds and engage in all types of activities that most animals do not. The skull is very effective against animal bites, short falls, and small objects hitting it. A great example of where the skull began to fail was when man decided to throw rocks at each other. The skull didn't evolve to repel rocks so they were an effective early weapon of war. If someone sustains an injury from a hurled rock, it could lead to a skull fracture. A skull fracture occurs when a bone or number of bones in the skull cracks or breaks. This in turn can cause a contusion of the brain and lead to concussion, coma, disability, or death.

Some other common forms of brain injury can result from decrease or lack of oxygen to the brain, inadequate blood supply, or stroke. There are also blood clots, infection, viruses and bacteria, and many other injuries that a brain can be injured by. Over 600,000 people are hospitalized with a head injury every year in the USA alone. Luckily, with the advance of technology and the implementation of helmet programs and air bags, brain injuries have reduced over the years. This is especially true with bike riding children.