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Frequently Asked Questions about Brain InjuryPlease choose a question below
What is Traumatic Brain Injury?
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), also called acquired brain injury or simply head injury, occurs when sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. Symptoms of a TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain.
How many people per year suffer from TBI?
According to U.S. government statistics, at least 1.4 million Americans sustain a TBI. Of these, about 50,000 die, 235,000 are hospitalized, and 1.1 million are treated and released.
Approximately 475,000 TBIs occur among children ages 0 to 14 years; ER visits account for more than 90% of the TBIs in this age group.
Falls are the leading cause of TBI; rates are highest for children ages 0 to 4 years and for adults age 75 years or older.
What are the symptoms of a TBI?
According to experts at the Mayo Clinic, a person with a mild TBI may remain awake or may experience a loss of consciousness for a few seconds or minutes. Other symptoms of mild TBI include headache, confusion, lightheadedness, dizziness, blurred vision or tired eyes, ringing in the ears, bad taste in the mouth, fatigue or lethargy, a change in sleep patterns, behavioral or mood changes, and trouble with memory, concentration, attention, or thinking.
A person with a moderate or severe TBI may show these same symptoms, but may also have a headache that gets worse or does not go away, repeated vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures, dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes, slurred speech, weakness or numbness in the extremities, loss of coordination, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation.
What are some complications of a TBI?
Coma:
A person who is totally unconscious and unresponsive is in a coma. This situation typically lasts only a few days or weeks. After this time, some people gradually awaken, while others enter a paralyzed, vegetative state. People in a vegetative state often open their eyes and may move or make vocal sounds. Despite this, they are still unconscious and unaware of their surroundings. Anyone in a vegetative state for more than a year rarely recovers.
Seizures:
Some people who have had a traumatic brain injury will experience at least one seizure during the first week after the injury. However, this doesn't appear to increase their chances of developing epilepsy.
Infections:
Skull fractures or penetrating wounds can tear the membranes that surround the brain, letting in bacteria. Infection of these membranes can be especially dangerous because of its potential to spread to the rest of the nervous system.
Nerve damage:
Injuries to the base of the skull can damage facial nerves, causing paralysis of facial muscles.
Cognitive disabilities:
Thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, information processing and memory are all cognitive skills. Most people who have had a severe brain injury will experience complete loss or deterioration of cognitive abilities. The most common of these impairments is short-term memory loss.
Sensory problems:
A persistent ringing in the ears or difficulty recognizing objects can occur. Hand-eye coordination often is impaired, which can make people appear to be clumsy. If the part of the brain that processes taste or smell has been damaged, the person may perceive a bitter taste or a bad smell or have no ability to taste foods at all. He or she may also have blind spots or see double.
Difficulty swallowing:
A person with a brain injury may need to be fed through a tube during the early part of his or her recovery. If the victim is in a coma for an extended period of time, a feeding tube may be permanent.
Language difficulties:
Communication problems are common. Some people who have had brain injuries have trouble with spoken and written language, while others have problems deciphering nonverbal signals.
Personality changes.:
Brain injuries affect the part of the brain that handles impulse control, resulting in changes in behavior during recovery and rehabilitation. The injured person's unstable emotions and impaired social skills often pose the greatest coping challenge for many families and loved ones. Due to these significant changes, many victims loose friends and marriages.
Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease:
A traumatic brain injury appears to increase the risk of eventually developing Alzheimer's disease and, to a lesser degree, Parkinson's disease. The higher the frequency and severity of the injuries, the greater the risk.
How are TBIs treated?
Anyone with signs of moderate or severe TBI should receive medical care immediately. Because little can be done to reverse the initial brain damage caused by trauma, medical personnel try to stabilize TBI victims and focus on preventing further injury. Primary concerns include insuring proper oxygen supply to the brain and the rest of the body, maintaining adequate blood flow and stabilizing blood pressure. Imaging tests help in determining the diagnosis and prognosis of a TBI patient. Patients with mild to moderate injuries may receive skull and neck X-rays to check for bone fractures or spinal instability. For moderate to severe cases, the imaging test is a computed tomography (CT) scan. Moderately to severely injured patients receive rehabilitation that involves individually tailored treatment programs in the areas of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech/language therapy, psychology/psychiatry, and social support.
What is the prognosis for TBI patients?
According to Mayo Clinic experts, approximately half of severely head-injured patients require surgery to remove or repair hematomas (ruptured blood vessels) or contusions (bruised brain tissue). Disabilities resulting from a TBI depend upon the severity of the injury, the location of the injury, and the age and general health of the individual.
Some common disabilities include problems with cognition (thinking, memory, and reasoning), sensory processing (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), communication (expression and understanding), and behavior or mental health (depression, anxiety, personality changes, aggression, acting out, and social inappropriateness). More serious head injuries may result in stupor, an unresponsive state, but one in which an individual can be aroused briefly by a strong stimulus, such as sharp pain; coma, a state in which an individual is totally unconscious, unresponsive, unaware, and unarousable; vegetative state, in which an individual is unconscious and unaware of his or her surroundings, but continues to have a sleep-wake cycle and periods of alertness; and a persistent vegetative state (PVS), in which an individual stays in a vegetative state for more than a month.
What research is being done?
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) conducts TBI research in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and also supports TBI research through grants to major medical institutions across the country. This research involves studies in the laboratory and in clinical settings to better understand TBI and the biological mechanisms underlying damage to the brain. This research will allow scientists to develop strategies and interventions to limit the primary and secondary brain damage that occurs within days of a head trauma, and to devise therapies to treat brain injury and improve long-term recovery of function.
How are TBI victims compensated?
The kind of damages that can be awarded to TBI victims differ from case to case as no two injuries are the same. In addition to the medical, hospital and rehabilitation expenses, courts also evaluate the nature and extent of the injury; whether the injury is temporary or permanent; pain and suffering; loss of earnings and impairment of earning capacity; any disfigurement or deformity; mental anguish; and the loss of enjoyment of life. Contacting an attorney at the time of the accident, or as soon as knowledge of a TBI exists, is crucial in ensuring the protection of legal rights associated with TBI injuries.
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