Traumatic brain injury: diagnosis and treatment Essay

collisions. The change in motion makes the brain move around in your head. This damages some delicate, but important tissues in your head such as nerve fibers. Blood vessels tear and the surface of the brain mainly the frontal and temporal areas is lacerated as it rotates across the bony ridges inside the front of the skull, so causing more damage. Further damage and bruising can be caused to the front and back of the brain as it rebounds forward and backward against the rough inside surface of the skull. Additionally, the skull may be fractured in the area where the head hit the fixed surface causing further localized damage. If the fracture causes a piece of bone to exert pressure on the underlying brain, this is called a depressed fracture. Mild brain injury is likely to involve the full range of damage discussed above as the brain is shaken around inside the skull. This can cause significant problems. The diffuse axonal damage can be devastating and result in permanent disability.
Diagnosis
With moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), the diagnosis is often self-evident. In the presence of other life threatening injuries, which are often the case with motor vehicle accidents, closed head injury can be missed. The focus is on lifesaving measures. The patient may be on a ventilator (breathing machine) and sedated and the evaluation for brain injury will be limited until the patient is allowed to emerge from medications and mechanical ventilation. Mild traumatic brain injury may not be diagnosed until the individual begins to have problems in what were once easy tasks or social situations. Injury to specific areas of the brain will cause certain symptoms. For example, injury to the frontal lobes will cause loss of higher cognitive functions, such as loss of inhibitions leading to inappropriate social behavior. Injury to the cerebellum will cause loss of coordination and balance. The brainstem controls things like breathing and heart rate, as well as arousal. An injury to this area could inhibit any of these processes.
Medications and Treatments
Medications for TBI to limit secondary damage include Diuretics, Anti-seizure drugs, and Coma-inducing drugs. Diuretics are drugs that reduce the amount of fluid in tissues and increase urine output. This may reduce the pressure inside of your brain. Anti-seizure drugs are given to avoid any other damage to the brain that may cause seizure. They're only used if seizures do occur. Finally, a Coma-inducing drug puts the patient into a temporary coma because the brain needs less oxygen to function. Note that none of these actually cure the person it only helps ease the pain. Surgery can also help the person even more than the medications, but it obviously be more expensive. Treatments, on the other hand, help people who experienced severe injuries. Rehabilitation is when the patient is helped fit back to their original lifestyle. There are many types of specialists for this such as, to only name a few, a physiatrist, social worker, neuropsychologist, etc.