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The Effects of Brain Injuries

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that the number of individuals, just in the U.S. alone, who suffer from a serious brain injury is close to one and a half million each year. Of those, over 50,000 will die; around 250,000 will be hospitalized for at least one day, and the rest are treated and released. Serious brain injury can result in long-term, permanent, often devastating damage to motor-control systems, sensory input systems, perceptional organization, and emotional processing.

  1. Cause of Injury

    • Brain injury can be moderate or severe. This depends not only on where the injury occurs but also on the extent of damage. Doctors typically divide brain injuries into two types: open or closed head injury. Injury can come from a force blow to the head or from a lack of oxygen (e.g., drowning, stroke). Anoxic brain injury occurs when the brain is starved for oxygen. This can happen when something prevents either blood or oxygen from reaching the brain. Traumatic Brain Injury (or TBI) occurs when the head is injured by a force blow to the head, which causes the soft tissue of the brain to violently collide with the inside of the skull.

    Symptoms

    • Injuries to the back of the head, near or at the brain stem can be, and often are, almost instantly fatal. Nonfatal injuries can cause weakness, paralysis or loss of sensation in the arms, legs or other parts of the body. They can also cause difficulty breathing. General symptoms of TBI or anoxic damage are typically: headaches, loss of consciousness, vomiting, seizures or paralysis. Any sign of these symptoms after any type of head injury is serious, and the injured person requires immediate medical attention.

    Long-Term Damage

    • Brain injury can result in long-term damage to the motor system, impairing movement. Damage can occur to those parts of the brain that process signals from the eyes or ears leading to partial or full blindness or deafness. Damage can occur to the higher-order cognitive parts of the brain, resulting in disruptions in perception (e.g., difficulties in recognizing and categorizing objects), thinking and reasoning (e.g., difficulties in understanding or producing language) and emotional and personality disruptions.

    Treatment

    • According to the National Institutes of Health (Neurological Disorders and Stroke division), sudden head trauma, as in a car or sport's accident, if not too severe, doctors can effectively treat these types of injuries with drugs designed to protect neurons and blood vessels from the effects of the trauma. Many people can recover partly or fully if they receive adequate and immediate treatment. Brain damage that occurs over time, such as in boxing or long-term drug or alcohol abuse, is typically more difficult to treat, and recovery can take much longer, if it occurs at all.

    Rehabilitation

    • Traumatic brain-injury rehabilitation is a procedure proscribed by experts in brain injury to help patients either recover from, or learn to adapt to, impaired functions. Recovery from a severe anoxic or TBI damage can be a long, frustrating and painful process, involving the participation of many different types of medical expertise and long-term help from a patient's family and friends. Successful rehabilitation depends on the nature, severity, and location of the damage. Most TBI patients will receive individualized rehabilitation care. The specifics will depend on the patient's age--- and the strengths and weakness of both the healthy and impaired parts of the brain.

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