Head and Brain Injuries
A head injury is any trauma that leads to injury of the scalp, skull, or brain. The injuries can range from a minor bump on the skull to serious brain injury.
Head injury is classified as either closed or open (penetrating).
- A closed head injury means you received a hard blow to the head from striking an object.
- An open, or penetrating, head injury means you were hit with an object that broke the skull and entered the brain. This usually happens when you move at high speed, such as going through the windshield during a car accident. It can also happen from a gunshot to the head.
- Concussion, the most common type of traumatic brain injury
- Contusion, which is a bruise on the brain.
The signs of a head injury can occur immediately or develop slowly over several hours. Even if the skull is not fractured, the brain can bang against the inside of the skull and be bruised. (This is called a concussion.) The head may look fine, but complications could result from bleeding inside the skull. When encountering a person who just had a head injury, try to find out what happened. If he or she cannot tell you, look for clues and ask witnesses. In any serious head trauma, always assume the spinal cord is also injured.
What are the main causes of head injuries?
A serious head injury is most likely to happen to someone who is in a car wreck and isn't wearing a seat belt. Other major causes of head injuries include bicycle or motorcycle wrecks, falls from windows (especially among children who live in the city) and falls around the house (especially among toddlers and the elderly).
What happens after a head injury?
It's normal to have a headache and nausea, and feel dizzy right after a head injury. Other symptoms include ringing in the ears, neck pain, and feeling anxious, upset, irritable, depressed or tired. The person who has had a head injury may also have problems concentrating, remembering things, putting thoughts together or doing more than one thing at a time. These symptoms usually go away in a few weeks, but may go on for over a year if the injury was severe.
Will the head injury cause permanent brain damage?
This depends on how bad the injury was and how much damage it did. Most head injuries don't cause permanent damage.
Credit: National Institute of Health.