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Organic brain injury: main causes and symptoms

A diagnosis like organic brain damage, is very common today. This is due to the fact that it is not one disease, but a group of different pathologies, which are characterized by some structural pathological changes in brain tissue.

If you believe the doctors-neurologists, the diagnosis 9 out of 10 people of any age. But, fortunately, most often organic changes are so minimal that absolutely does not affect the functioning of the brain and the health of the patient. In the case when the symptoms of such disorders, it can be assumed that the pathological changes were a large part of the brain (about 20-50%) if the number of damaged neurons exceeds 50% develop persistent pathological symptoms and syndromes, which we will discuss below.

Video lecture on organic brain damage:

What is it?

So, as we have seen, in organic lesions of the brain in its tissues are pathological changes, which are the pathomorphological substrate, that is, if desired, they can be seen using neuroimaging techniques. It can be various pathological processes that depends on the etiology and nosology of primary disease, e.g. brain tumour, scar lesion after stroke, atherosclerotic plaques in blood vessels, hemorrhage, abscesses, traumatic injuries, parasitic cysts, amyloid plaques, foci of gliosis, etc.

For comparison, functional disorders of the brain does not have a morphological substrate, but the pathological symptoms are still present, for example, schizophrenia, epilepsy.

Depending on the etiology of the organic brain damage can be diffuse (

Causes organic brain damage

Causes of organic lesions of the brain very much. Consider the most common.

Vascular diseases of the brain

In this group of causes of organic brain tissue damage can be attributed to hemorrhagic and

The main symptoms

As already mentioned, the main manifestation of organic brain damage is a psycho-organic syndrome and dementia.

The psychoorganic set of symptoms includes 3 main features:

  1. Reduced memory – reduced ability to remember new information appear fake memories, losing the memories (amnesia).
  2. The weakening of intellectual activity. Reduced ability to concentrate, increased distractibility, impaired thinking, man picks up only certain parts, not all of the phenomenon inGeneral. Gradually disturbed orientation in space and self. A person loses the ability to adequately assess the situation and their actions.
  3. Cerebrasthenia and affective disorders. Cerebrasthenia is increased weakness, constant headache, dizziness, increased emotional exhaustion. Affective disorders are irritability, depressive disorders, decreased interest in his surroundings, inadequacy of emotional reactions.

Dementia – an acquired, persistent decline of human cognitive activity. In contrast to dementia, which can be congenital, dementia is the disintegration of mental functions due to organic brain damage. In some cases it is so pronounced that the person completely loses the ability to self.

Signs of the disease, depending on the location of the lesion (focal symptoms):

  1. The damage to the frontal lobes of the brain – convulsions, paralysis of the eye muscles, motor aphasia (inability to articulate words), inability to perform purposeful movements, mental disorders (defiance, carelessness, euphoria and the violation of criticism to his behavior), impaired olfactory function, monoparty extremities, paralysis of facial muscles.
  2. Damage to the parietal lobes – a violation of all kinds of sensitivity, seizures, inability to count, to read, to carry out targeted actions.
  3. Damage to the temporal lobes – disorders of taste, hearing, smell, possible hallucinations, temporal lobe epilepsy, sensory aphasia, emotional lability.
  4. Damage to the occipital lobe – loss of visual fields, blindness, impaired balance and coordination, visual hallucinations, seizures.

Thus, signs of organic lesions of the brain depends on the primary pathology and localization of lesions, their number and distribution in brain tissue.

Video transmission on vascular dementia:

Organic brain damage in children

In children with organic pathology of the brain most often associated with perinatal brain damage. It is the whole group of pathological conditions that are caused by the negative impact on the fetus or have a newborn baby adverse factors.

Causes of perinatal brain damage in children:

  • diseases of the internal organs of the mother;
  • the use of drugs by the mother during pregnancy teratogenic effect;
  • bad habits in women during pregnancy;
  • young maternal age (under 18);
  • infectious diseases in women inpregnancy;
  • toxicosis;
  • genetic pathology;
  • complications of pregnancy (rhesus-conflict, polyhydramnios, placental insufficiency, etc.);
  • TORCH-infections;
  • radiation effect;
  • hypoxia and ischemia during childbirth;
  • trauma in childbirth.

A large degree of plasticity of the brain in the newborn allows in most cases to overcome all the pathological changes, because often the child has no symptoms after this defeat. But in some cases are residual effects that may be transient or evolve into more severe disorders, cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus. Mental retardation, epilepsy.