All you ever wanted to know about concussions!
Cerebral concussions are a type of head injury that occurs
most frequently among football players, gymnasts, ice
hockey players, and wrestlers. These and other sports carry
a risk for catastrophic head injuries as well as minor head
injuries. In diagnosing cerebral concussions, the physician
must distinguish them from other head injuries such as
epidural, subdural, or intracerebral hematomas,
subarachnoid hemorrhages, and cervical spine injuries.
Cerebral concussions are considered diffuse brain injuries
and can be defined as traumatically induced alterations of
mental status. A concussion results from shaking of the brain
within the skull and often causes shearing injuries to nerve
fibers and neurons. Confusion, amnesia, and loss of
consciousness are typical results of a concussion. Frequent
symptoms include headache, dizziness, impaired orientation,
and impaired concentration. Grading the concussion is a
helpful tool in management of the injury and depends on the
number of previous concussions, duration of post-traumatic
amnesia, loss of consciousness, and persistence of
symptoms. Grade I concussions usually are not associated
with loss of consciousness and athletes may return to play if
no symptoms appear for one week. Players who sustain a
grade II concussion usually lose consciousness for less than
five minutes and may return to play after one week of being
asymptomatic. Grade III concussions usually involve
memory loss for more than 24 hours and unconsciousness
for more than five minutes and should sideline the player for
at least one month. After repeated concussions, a player
should be sidelined for longer periods of time and possibly
not allowed to return to play for the remainder of the
season. Repeated concussions can lead to second-impact
syndrome which may result in fatal brain swelling due to
unregulated vascular engorgement and herniation of the
brain. Physicians should be familiar with at least one of
several existing sets of guidelines regarding the management
of concussions.
Understand all that???? Doubt it!More to come when I get a chance to put it all in Laymans terms.
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