Concussion is considered one of the most mild traumatic brain injuries associated with vascular damage. However, you should not write off such damage, because the consequences can be quite serious. This type of injury requires compulsory treatment, because ignoring the symptoms of concussion in adults will not lead to anything good. The right decision will be to contact a specialist in a short time after receiving damage. Then the probability of complications and unpleasant consequences will be significantly reduced. In this article, we look at the symptoms and treatment of concussion , and also talk about the degrees of severity and the causes of the ailment.
Terminology
Before starting to discuss the above issues, you need to decide on the concept of concussion. This is a pathological condition resulting from a brain injury. In other words, damage occurs due to direct exposure to mechanical factors. In different parts of the brain there is disunity in the work. In addition, vasospasm occurs. After some time, they expand, which leads to a violation of normal blood flow.
All these factors have a negative effect on brain functions, and this is where the specific signs come from. Concussion in adults is quite common, so you need to know that in such situations, quality treatment is required. Basically, the doctor prescribes drug therapy. With the help of medications, you can resume disturbed processes in the body, as well as remove the observed symptoms.
It is worth noting that concussion is often found in young and middle-aged people, as well as in children from 5 to 15 years. To provide the necessary medical care, you need to contact a neurologist or traumatologist.
Causes of Injury
There are plenty of reasons for this kind of damage. Most often, the concussion occurs as a result of direct mechanical impact on the skull, that is, a blow to the head. In addition, trauma occurs with a sharp influence of axial load. For example, if a person falls on his legs or buttocks, an impulse is transmitted through the spine to the head, which can cause a slight concussion. Injury is often caused by deceleration or acceleration, for example during a car accident.
In all of the situations described above, shaking of the head occurs. The brain "floats" in the fluid of the cranium. Shaking results in hydrodynamic shock, which is propagated by the wave. If the mechanical effect was strong enough, a brain stroke against the walls of the cranium is possible.
The development of the disease is not fully understood in modern medicine. Many scientists agree that manifestations are based on the fragmented work of the brain. However, there is no refutation of the version of impaired functioning due to an incorrect process of neuronal metabolism. In other words, adult concussion requires careful diagnosis and subsequent treatment. It is better to take no actions on your own, in addition to providing first aid if necessary. In any other situations, you need to wait for the appearance of doctors.
Symptoms of concussion in adults
I must say that the disease manifests itself in different ways. It depends on the severity of the injury, the cause of its appearance, etc. Damage of this type is not accompanied by a fracture of the skull, but exists as a separate disease.
Let's take a closer look at the symptoms of concussion :
- headache, dizziness, hesitant gait, imbalance;
- ringing and tinnitus, creating a feeling of discomfort;
- vision problems, often darkens in the eyes, flies appear;
- nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite;
- stunning, complete or partial loss of consciousness;
- intolerance to loud sounds, excessive photosensitivity;
- weakness, increased sweating, redness or blanching of the skin.
General well-being in most cases is satisfactory, the patient has a partial fogging of consciousness, a feeling that the person is stunned. A buzz in the ears is a common occurrence with this kind of injury. Nausea occurs due to irritation of vomiting receptors. Among the signs of concussion in an adult, an unstable gait and regular darkening in the eyes stand out. In rare cases, patients experience convulsions resulting from excessive stimulation of the cerebral cortex.
Severity of damage
There is a certain classification, the essence of which is the division into the severity of the injury. It is worth noting that such a division is conditional, because the main criterion here will be the time that a person lay unconscious. However, for convenience in medicine, such a classification is still distinguished. Severity of head injury:
- Mild concussion. This is the case when the patient was unconscious for less than five minutes or did not lose him at all. The general condition of the victim is regarded as positive. Serious symptoms in the form of impaired coordination and movement are not observed.
- Medium degree. A person lay unconscious for no more than fifteen minutes. The doctor assesses the patient's condition with such an injury as moderate. The victim has symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
- Severe degree. The most unpleasant case when a person was unconscious for fifteen or more minutes. The patient's condition is regarded as serious and is characterized by a malfunction of the internal organs. In this case, the most severe symptoms of concussion are observed. The patient needs emergency medical care.
Which doctor should I go to?
As noted above, the victim has two main options: a traumatologist and a neurologist. The severity of the injury affects the choice of the right specialist. One thing to understand is that if you experience nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and other symptoms, you should immediately consult a doctor.
In some cases, a traumatic brain injury is accompanied by various bodily injuries in the form of dislocations, fractures, burns, bleeding, etc. If you find one of these signs, it is worth choosing a traumatologist. With significant bleeding, urgent surgery is often necessary, so the patient is sent from the emergency room to the general surgery department.
A neurologist should be consulted if after an injury a person feels satisfactorily. In case of external damage, it is better to visit a traumatologist. Still, it is this doctor who specializes in traumatic brain injuries.
Concussion in a child
Often this type of injury occurs in children. After all, it is difficult to find a more curious and fearless creature in the world. The thirst to learn something new and the lack of the instinct of self-preservation of an adult leads to serious damage. Concussion is the most common injury.
This is not surprising, because it can arise as a result of a blow with a heavy object, a fall and other emergency situations that the child often encounters. Damage can be identified by characteristic signs. In the case of a concussion in a child, the following symptoms are distinguished:
- pallor of the skin, which is suddenly replaced by redness;
- single or multiple vomiting;
- loss of consciousness, complaints of severe headache;
- nosebleeds, respiratory failure, pupil size changes.
If you ignore these signs, then in the future they can go into the chronic stage. That is, the child will constantly suffer from tinnitus, aching pain in the head, dizziness and sleep problems. The main task of parents in this case is to timely diagnose the injury and begin treatment. A concussion is serious damage, especially if a young child is injured. In order to avoid unpleasant consequences, you need to contact a specialist for help.
Complications
Various changes in the body are possible after any traumatic brain injury. Often recorded episodes of imbalance and aggression, which then patients regret. What are the possible complications of a concussion? Relapse of the lesion often leads to encephalopathy. That is, brain neurons are degraded due to local circulatory disorders. This injury is very common among boxers, because they may have concussions at least daily.
To recognize the complication, special attention should be paid to the motility of the lower extremities. In many cases, you can observe an uncertain gait, staggering, balance problems. There are situations when the psyche changes quite noticeably. This is expressed in lethargy and confusion, a person’s vocabulary is reduced, he cannot clearly express his thought, etc.
In fact, the list of complications is quite extensive. Each person suffers trauma in his own way, hence there are so many possible consequences. The victims have a mental disorder, neurosis, depression. In addition, blood pressure may increase on a regular basis, there are seizures, sweating, pallor, etc. Sometimes the patient suffers from psychosis, reinforced by hallucinatory and delusional syndromes. But these pathologies occur much less frequently.
Diagnostics
As already noted, the ailment can be recognized by characteristic symptoms. The key point may be eyewitness accounts. Basically, the doctor needs to know the circumstances in which the injury was received and the time the victim was unconscious. Concussion has no diagnostic signs that would be considered objective. Once injured, special attention should be paid to the symptoms that appear. In most cases, consciousness and coordination of movements are disturbed, the patient loses balance, etc.
To finalize the diagnosis, the doctor conducts additional studies:
- radiography, with which you can exclude several options at once, such as cracks and fractures of the skull;
- Encephalography allows you to see focal lesions in the vessels, from which no one is safe when injured;
- computed tomography is prescribed by a doctor only for serious injuries to determine possible changes in distant parts of the brain;
- analysis of the condition of the fundus is sometimes very useful, because it can be used to determine hemorrhage or hematoma.
General therapy
How to treat concussion? Despite the fact that in medicine this injury belongs to the category of lungs, it still requires compulsory treatment. In some non-serious situations, the doctor allows the treatment at home, but under strict supervision.
However, in most cases, doctors insist that the patient be in the hospital. The fact is that no one knows what consequences the concussion will cause in the victim. In a hospital setting, the likelihood of serious problems is significantly reduced. And if this still happens, professional assistance will be provided.
First aid
Before talking about the treatment of concussion, it is necessary to consider first aid. It is from these actions that the further state of the victim, the likelihood of complications, and many other factors depend. Oddly enough, the best thing you can do for a patient is to arrange his peace.
If the victim did not lose consciousness, he needs to lie down and slightly raise his head. In the case when the patient lay for some time unconscious, it is necessary to take measures:
- lay on your side, preferably right;
- turn your head to such an extent that the face is pointing down;
- the left leg and arm are recommended to be laid at an angle of ninety degrees.
This situation has several advantages: firstly, it will be convenient for the victim to lie in this position, and secondly, if the patient vomits, the liquid will drain down and will not enter the respiratory tract. In the case of a wound on the head, it should be treated.
It is worth noting that even the slightest concussion is a head injury. The victim simply needs bed rest for several days. After this time, if the patient is feeling well, you can get up, walk, etc.
Medication treatment
How to treat concussion with medication? Modern medicine does not give an unambiguous answer to this question, because there is no universal drug therapy. The doctor can prescribe medications that are aimed at eliminating insomnia, normalizing brain function, relieving headaches, etc. It turns out that the doctor needs to carefully understand the problem in order to prescribe medications.
Depending on the symptoms identified in the patient, painkillers, sedatives and sleeping pills are prescribed. For example, to eliminate headaches, doctors recommend taking analgin, Ibuprofen or Citramon. If the victim suffers from dizziness, it is better to stop at Cinnarizine or Balloid.
Among sedative medicines, motherwort tincture and valerian extract are especially popular. To overcome insomnia, take "Relax".
ethnoscience
Alternative methods of treatment are ambiguous, because in some situations they are very effective, while in others they are absolutely useless. To relieve a headache, eliminate the symptoms of injury, herbalists recommend decoctions of various herbs. In general, the treatment of concussion at home involves the use of alternative methods of therapy.
Consider the two most popular recipes:
- Infusion of lemon balm, mint and motherwort. To prepare it, it is necessary to dry all the ingredients in the same amount and mix. One tablespoon of the mixture is filled with half a liter of boiling water. The next day, you need to divide the broth into four parts and drink it during the day.
- Chamomile, mint, valerian root, lemon balm and hop cones. You will need about twenty grams of each plant, you need to mix them, and pour the finished mixture (two tablespoons) with boiling water. Then wait twenty minutes to insist. Divide the broth into six parts and take during the day.
Both drugs are used until all unpleasant symptoms disappear.
Effects
In the case of a quick diagnosis of the problem and high-quality treatment, the injury is completely cured and the patient recovers. However, in some situations difficulties may arise. What are the consequences of a concussion in a victim? There are several main cases:
- Postcommission syndrome. This option is considered the worst. The disease often stretches for several months, and appears several days after the injury. Among the signs, nervousness, insomnia, acute headache are most noticeable.
- Excitability and instability. One of the most common consequences is aggression and irritability. As a result of the damage, the psyche of the patient suffers greatly, hence such side effects.
- Bouts. Seizures of this kind are very reminiscent of epilepsy, here, first aid comes in first place in importance.
- Depression, hypersensitivity to alcohol.
The damage in question can be safely attributed to one of the most mild traumatic brain injuries. A distinctive feature is the ability to restore brain functions. For this to happen, you need to visit a doctor on time and undergo a course of therapy.
In our article, we talked about the symptoms and treatment of concussion, and also examined the rules of first aid and possible consequences. It is better not to ignore the injury and immediately make an appointment with a specialist.