Concussion: symptoms, consequences and treatment

Despite a concussion and is a light traumatic brain injury, but it is the most frequent type of injury. To get injured anywhere and at motor vehicle accidents, and various sports activities, and even in the home. The main problem of this condition lies in the fact that very often a concussion is not diagnosed and left without medical attention. This in turn contributes to the development of complications and consequences, which sometimes are severe enough to impair quality of life. Because you need to know about this injury and about the signs that point to it, in time to seek medical help.

What happens when you have a concussion

A concussion may result from strokes, injuries in the head and other parts of the body, when power is transmitted to brain tissue (for example, a fall on the buttocks), also lead to concussion can abrupt head movements.

The main feature of this injuries other brain injuries is the lack of pathological substrate, i.e., no hemorrhage, neuronal death, or other damage. If you hold a patient's MRI or CT scan, no pathological deviations from the norm will not. All changes if the concussion occurs at the subcellular level, when you suffer cell organelles, temporarily there is a violation of mineralnych relations and others.

At the time of exposure to traumatic factor brain tissue dramatically shaken and hits the inside of the bones of the skull, which leads to:

• the variation of some physical and chemical properties of cells to changes in the spatial organization of protein molecules;
• pathological effects lends itself to all golovkovskaya fabric;
• temporarily occurs the separation of the relationship and signaling between neuronal cells and brain departments, which contributes to the development of functional disorders with the shock;
• pathological changes in brain tissue no (neither macroscopic nor the microscopic level).

It is important to remember! The main distinguishing feature of a concussion from other types of injuries is the absence of any morphological changes. If the injury gaps are found even small capillaries, edema of the brain tissue, it is likely that we are dealing already with a brain injury, not concussion.

Symptoms of a concussion

The main thing that will allow you to suspect a concussion – it's a fact of injury. Immediately after exposure to traumatic agent, a person can lose consciousness in a different time period. Usually it is 1-3 minutes, but sometimesfound coma light up to 6 hours.

Immediately after that, the victim feels headache,

The severity of the concussion

Depending on the severity of the patient's condition and clinical symptoms there are three degrees of brain concussion:

1. Concussion mild – no impairment of consciousness, the patient feels the disorientation and other symptoms (headache, dizziness, nausea) during the first 20 minutes after the injury, after this time the General health becomes normal. May increase the temperature up to subfebrile.
2. A concussion of medium severity , no loss of consciousness, but pathological symptoms, such as disorientation, headache, nausea, dizziness, lasting more than twenty minutes. There may be a loss of memory (amnesia), often it is a case of retrograde amnesia with loss of a few minutes of memories that preceded the injury.
3. A concussion, severe – always occurs with loss of consciousness for a short period of time, usually a few minutes, but there are times and a few hours. The victim does not remember what happened, because develops retrograde amnesia. Pathological symptoms are bothering a person for 1-2 weeks after injury (headache, disorientation, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite and sleep).

It is important to remember! Doctors will allocate 6 hour time period of the unconscious patient after a trauma, which allows to distinguish between concussion and contusion of the brain. If the person after the injury is more than 6 hours without consciousness, then clearly there is damage to the brain tissue and the shaking is eliminated.

How to establish the diagnosis?

The diagnosis of a concussion is subjective because there are no diagnostic methods that will allow you to confirm changes in subcellular level. But considering the fact of head injury, be sure to carry out all necessary additional testing to rule out more serious injury, e.g. skull fracture, hematoma of the brain, the crushing of brain tissue, etc. this necessarily requires:

• neurological examination of the patient;
• examination of the eye fundus (ophthalmoscopy);
• x-rays of the skull bones;
• An MRI or CT scan of the brain;
• measurement of pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid (lumbar puncture, at the same time exclude subarachnoid haemorrhage);
• EEG and REG.

Criteria for the diagnosis of concussion:

• the fact of the injury;
• short term confusion;
• the absence of any organic changes according of any additional surveys.

Butyou must take into account the fact that a crack or fracture of the skull does not reject the diagnosis of brain concussion. These two conditions can occur simultaneously.

First aid for concussion

If any of your relatives received a head injury, it is necessary to take some measures that will reduce the extent of the damage and prevent complications of the injury.

Main activities first aid:

• if the victim is unconscious, immediately call an ambulance;
• the unconscious man lay on a hard surface on his right side with bent knees and elbows limbs and upturned up and turned towards the ground head, this position provides good air permeability in the airway and prevents aspiration of fluids in case of vomiting;
• if the victim is present active bleeding from a head wound, a hemostatic bandage is applied;
• if the person has regained consciousness or syncope were absent, you need to stack it horizontally with your head elevated, to constantly monitor the consciousness, not to allow the victim to sleep.

It is important to remember! All patients with head injury regardless of the severity of the condition and health must be hospitalized in special neurological Department for diagnostics and for status monitoring. The minimum stay in hospital in case there was no injury (even a concussion) is 24 hours. A concussion depending on the severity of treated inpatient 1 to 2 weeks with a further shift to outpatient recovery phase.

Video about the principles of first aid for the brain:

Principles of treatment of cerebral concussion

The main treatment for concussion is proper bedding and protection regime, sufficient sleep and rest, the absence of any physical and mental overstress.

The main prohibitions on the stage of treatment of concussion:

• impossible for months to perform heavy physical work, exercise;
• in any case not to disturb the bed;
• need to give up television, home away from home at the computer, prolonged reading books;
• listening to relaxing music can be, but not in the headphones.

It is important to remember! Disregard for these guidelines is fraught with the development of persistent effects of concussion, which significantly affects the quality of life of the victim, and sometimes even lead to changes in the nature of the individual (post-traumatic personality change).

Drug treatment is of secondary importance when concussionof the brain compared to the protection regime, but, however, is assigned to each patient for a speedy recovery, getting rid of the painful symptoms and overall strengthening of the body, to prevent possible complications.

Prescribers who establish cerebral circulation and can relieve headaches, eliminate dizziness and nausea. Concurrently use drugs that have neuroprotective properties and improve a variety of different processes in the brain. Also used anti-anxiety and sleeping drugs. At the stage of rehabilitation is prescribed vitamins, General tonic and nootropic agents courses to minimize possible injury.

After suffering a concussion a person is put on dispensary registration throughout the year, as during this time may occur late effects of injury. If everything is OK, then after a specified time the patient is removed from the register.

The consequences and complications of trauma

If the patient has complied with all medical advice, and treatment was started on time, almost always concussion ends with complete recovery and resumption of capacity for work.

Some patients may experience residual effects (effects of) trauma for a long time. This reduced ability to concentrate, irritability, fatigue, depressive disorders, memory disturbances, , migraine, sleep disturbance. Usually after the first year all these symptoms are mitigated, but there are times when they don't leave a person throughout his later life.