3 C’s of Traumatic Brain Injury
Posted on 27. Feb, 2010 by Lawyers in DWI
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is brain damage sustained from external mechanical force, where brain function is temporarily or permanently affected and impaired. This brain injury is an acquired type of injury, that is, sudden physical trauma to the gray matter not caused by hereditary, congenital, or degenerative conditions. TBIs are usually classified and treated according to cause, category, and complication.
Causes and Causative Forces
The most common occurrences that lead to traumatic brain injury include violence and accidents related to transportation, construction, and sports. In the US, between 1.6 and 3.8 million traumatic brain injury cases are a result of sports and recreation activities, while bicycle and motorcycle accidents are major vehicular accidents leading to head trauma. Among children, child abuse causes 19% of brain injury cases, with a high death rate among such instances.
Forces involved in such forceful occurrences leading to brain trauma include angular, rotational, shear, and translational forces. Contact or impact loading, where the head strikes or is struck by something, is usually responsible for focal or regionalized injuries, while noncontact or inertial loading causes diffuse injuries, which are distributed in a more general manner.
Categories
Categorization of brain injuries can be mild, moderate, and severe. The most commonly used classification system is the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which grades the person’s level of consciousness based on verbal, motor, and eye-opening reactions to stimuli. The lower the person’s standing is on the GCS scale, the more severe the injury. As well, duration of post-traumatic amnesia and loss of consciousness are also evaluated. For these additional criteria, the higher the values, the more severe is the person’s condition.
Complications
While most mild TBI cases do not cause permanent or long-term disability, all brain injury severity levels have the potential to create complications.
Medical problems that result from TBI include a broad range of physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral complications. Effects on consciousness include coma, brain death, and even a persistent vegetative state. Meanwhile, trauma to blood vessels can result in vasospasms and aneurysms.
Movement disorders associated with brain trauma often affect coordination and muscle function and also increases susceptibility to seizures. Cognitive deficits that can follow injury include language problems, disrupted judgment, memory loss, and problems in executive functions. Emotional or behavioral impairments generally involve depression, anger, irritability, mania, emotional instability, and increased predisposition to psychiatric disorders. The worst of these problems often characterize chronic TBI.
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This article is intended to provide only general information on the topic and not as legal advice.
