Jul
18
Written by:
Lisa Moss
7/18/2010 7:47 AM
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), also called acquired brain injury or simply head injury occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. Symptoms of a TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain. A person with a mild TBI may remain conscious or may experience a loss of consciousness for a few seconds or minutes. Other symptoms of mild TBI include headache, confusion, lightheadedness, dizziness, blurred vision or tired eyes, ringing in the ears, bad taste in the mouth, fatigue or lethargy, a change in sleep patterns, behavioral or mood changes, and trouble with memory, concentration, attention, or thinking. A person with a moderate or severe TBI may show these same symptoms, but may also have a headache that gets worse or does not go away, repeated vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures, an inability to awaken from sleep, dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes, slurred speech, weakness or numbness in the extremities, loss of coordination, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation.
Source: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Brain Injury Statistics
Of the 1.4 million who sustain a TBI each year in the US
- 50,000 die
- 235,000 are hospitalized
- 1.1 million are treated and released from an emergency department
The leading causes of TBI
- Falls (28%)
- Motor vehicle accidents (20%)
- Blow (19%)
- Assaults (11%)
Those at highest risk for TBI
- Males are about 1.5 times as likely as females to sustain a TBI
- Ages 0 to 4 years of age and 15 to 19 years of age
- Certain military duties
- African Americans have the highest death rate from TBI
The costs of TBI
- Direct medical and indirect costs are an estimated $56.3 billion in the US
Source: Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Brain Injury Prognosis
Approximately half of severely head-injured patients will need surgery to remove or repair hematomas (ruptured blood vessels) or contusions (bruised brain tissue). Disabilities resulting from a TBI depend upon the severity of the injury, the location of the injury, and the age and general health of the individual. Some common disabilities include problems with cognition (thinking, memory, and reasoning), sensory processing (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), communication (expression and understanding), and behavior or mental health (depression, anxiety, personality changes, aggression, acting out, and social inappropriateness). More serious head injuries may result in stupor, an unresponsive state, but one in which an individual can be aroused briefly by a strong stimulus, such as sharp pain; coma, a state in which an individual is totally unconscious, unresponsive, unaware, and unarousable; vegetative state, in which an individual is unconscious and unaware of his or her surroundings, but continues to have a sleep-wake cycle and periods of alertness; and a persistent vegetative state (PVS), in which an individual stays in a vegetative state for more than a month.
Source: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Every 23 seconds, one person in the US sustains a Traumatic Brain Injury.
An estimated 3.17 Million Americans currently live with disabilities resulting from Traumatic Brain Injury.
1.4 Million Americans sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury each year.
More than 50,000 people die every year as a result of Traumatic Brain Injury.