Head injury is a phenomenon that can cause significant harms to a person’s skull, scalp and brain. It can have fatal consequences if not treated properly and promptly and can be of severe or minor nature.
Causes of Head Injury
As a mater of fact, the majority of the head injuries are caused by the traffic road accidents. Apart from that, occupational accidents also lead to head injury in some cases. The people who play games that involve rapid movement like Rugby, football etc often end up injuring their head. Elderly people can fall indoors as well as outdoors and this leads to injury to the head.
The assaults by robbers and hooligans also lead to head injuries in some cases. Children who like to ride bicycles on the road often suffer from road accidents that lead to brain damage. Drunken driving is another factor that causes many motor accidents on roads and the victims often receive head injury.
Symptoms of Head Injury
The symptoms of head injury alter from person to person. Some people may feel difficulties in viewing and maintaining balance after being injured. If the damage is severe causing internal hemorrhage the patient may go into a coma. Occasionally, the victims can suffer from vomiting and nausea. Such a person can lose consciousness temporarily and regain it later.
If the skull of the person is damaged, the leakage of cerebrospinal fluid can be detected. It can drain from the person’s mouth, nose or ear. If the person’s eyes become sunken it may point to a case of maxillar fracture.
Sometimes, a facial bone may be broken due to the accident or some nerves can get smashed resulting in an inability to move the eye. Apart from these, bruises and wounds can occur in the victim’s face. A person with head injuries can feel drowsy and his normal speech pattern can become cluttered. People who sustain prolonged head trauma accompanied by loss of consciousness are likely to develop Alzheimer's disease afterwards.
Types of Head Injury
Head injuries can be of different types. Some persons can receive damages to the brain while others suffer from injuries made to areas like skull and scalp. Head injuries can be categorized into closed and open types. A closed variant of head injury signifies that the victim’s skull is unbroken. In a penetrating head injury an external object perforates the skull. A person’s skull may get fractured because of damage to the brain.
As a matter of fact, a person’s brain can be damaged at the place of collision. But in some cases, the damage may be caused at the reverse side of his skull as well. This is known as a contrecoup effect in medical terminologies. If the collision causing the injury makes the person’s head to move, it can deteriorate the damage.
Treatments of Head Injury
Practically speaking, the treatment of head injury cases depends on the severity and type. A patient may be treated at home for minor injuries while severe damages need specialized treatment in hospitals. If a person bleeds from the collision and there is a wound on the head, he may need first aid which may include stitching. Sometimes medicines like antibiotics and painkillers may be used to reduce the pain. In case the person has received damages to the nerves because of head injury, he might need specialized treatments like physiotherapy, speech therapy along with mental support.
Advice
While driving by cars or bicycles, a person needs to monitor the surrounding traffic carefully to avoid the chances of accidents and head injury. Prevention and watchfulness can avoid the chances of these incidents significantly. Sometimes the brain may receive internal injury which is not perceptible from outside. Therefore, after an accident the victims need to be monitored closely to trace any signs of brain damage. In some cases, the doctors opt for sedative drugs to keep the patient in a static posture that prevents further damage to the brain.
