Head and Brain Injury

The information contained in this article is not meant to serve as a medical diagnosis or advice, especially when it comes to treatment. If you have questions about a medical condition it is important for you to see your physician or another qualified health professional. Do not ignore the advice of a medical professional or delay seeking treatment because of what you’ve read in this article or somewhere else online.

The media has been giving concussions a lot of attention lately since the NFL has been forced to acknowledge the burgeoning evidence that concussions can cause victims lasting damage. Medical research has very clearly shown that concussions, especially when suffered repeatedly, cause long-term brain damage that includes memory problems, difficulty focusing and other cognitive impairments.

[Read more…] about Personal Injury: Concussion Attorney

Have you ever collided playing sports, fallen off a horse, or been in an auto accident? Were you ever injured in the military, been a victim of domestic violence, or had a concussion? Any one of these incidents can lead to a traumatic brain injury. A recent study suggests that these types of injuries resulted in years of painful migraines and headaches for 80% of the participants in the study.

[Read more…] about Traumatic Brain Injury Can Lead to Chronic Headache

The brain itself is made of soft, Jello-like tissue. It’s not a fixed, hardened structure like you find in bones. The brain consists of millions of very fine nerve fibers and floats around inside a hardened skull, in cerebral-spinal fluid. When the head is suddenly struck or is violently shaken or strikes a solid stationary object, the utter force of this motion goes directly to the brain.

When the head rotates during trauma, the brain inside also moves, twists and turns and undergoes forces that cause the brain-matter to move. Sudden movements of the head or forces directly hitting the head cause the brain tissue to move although the brain is protected within the skull and is highly resilient. This type of motion stretches, squeezes and may even tear the neural brain cells. To maintain the precise distance between neural cells and the delicate balance needed to effectively process and send messages between cells requires a calm, stable environment. When brain cells are squeezed and stretched due to these kinds of forces this delicate balance is altered and this can easily cause problems in the brain’s processing of information.

[Read more…] about What Occurs During a Brain Injury

Very often people are not sure what a “mild” brain injury is. The word “mild” refers to how severe the physical trauma was that precipitated the injury. By no means does it signify the severity of brain damage that resulted from the injury.

The CDC defined exactly what constitutes a mild brain injury in a written report submitted to the U.S. Congress on the topic of Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries in the United States, as follows:

A mild traumatic brain injury is when the head injury results from a blunt trauma, the acceleration, or deceleration forces and when at least one or more of the following conditions occurred during the period of observation due to the head injury:

• Any periods of momentary disorientation, confusion or diminished consciousness that is self-reported or observed;
• Any periods of memory dysfunction (amnesia) that occurred near the time of the injury, either self-reported or observed;
• Symptoms or signs observed of other types of neuropsychological or dysfunction, like:
  • Seizures immediately following the head injury;
  • In infants and among very young children: lethargy, irritability, and/or vomiting following the head injury;
  • Symptoms and signs in older children and adults: dizziness, headaches, fatigue irritability, and poor concentration or focus, when recognized soon after the injury, can be used to countenance a mild TBI diagnosis, but can’t be used to form the diagnosis if there is no loss of or changes in consciousness. Further research may be able to provide more guidance in this area.
• A period of self-reported or observed loss of consciousness that lasted 30 minutes or less.

[Read more…] about What Constitutes a Mild Brain Injury?