Concussion is considered one of the mildest traumatic brain injuries associated with vascular damage. However, such damage should not be written off, because the consequences can be quite serious. An injury of this type requires mandatory treatment, because ignoring the symptoms of a concussion in adults will not lead to anything good. The right decision would be to contact a specialist as soon as possible after receiving the damage. Then the likelihood of complications and unpleasant consequences will be significantly reduced. In this article, we will look at the symptoms and treatment of a concussion, as well as talk about the severity and causes of the disease.
Terminology
Before discussing the above issues, it is necessary to define the concept of concussion. This is a pathological condition that occurs as a result of brain injury. In other words, due to the direct impact of mechanical factors, damage appears. In different parts of the brain, there is disunity in work. In addition, vasospasm occurs. After some time, they expand, which leads to disruption of normal blood flow.
All of these factors have a negative impact on brain function, hence the specific symptoms. Concussion in adults is quite common, so you need to know that high-quality treatment is required in such situations. Basically, the doctor prescribes drug therapy. With the help of drugs, it is possible to resume disturbed processes in the body, as well as relieve the observed symptoms.
It is worth noting that concussion often occurs in young and middle-aged people, as well as in children from 5 to 15 years old. To provide the necessary medical care, you need to contact a neurologist or traumatologist.
Causes of injury
There are plenty of grounds for this kind of damage. Most often, concussion occurs as a result of direct mechanical impact on the skull, that is, a blow to the head. In addition, trauma also occurs with a sharp effect of axial load. For example, if a person falls on their legs or buttocks, an impulse is transmitted through the spine to the head, which can cause a slight concussion. Injury is often caused by slowing down or accelerating, such as during a car accident.
In all of the above situations, there is a shaking of the head. The brain "floats" in the fluid of the cranium. The shaking results in a hydrodynamic shock that propagates in a wave. If the mechanical impact was strong enough, the brain could hit the walls of the skull.
The development of the disease has not been studied untilend of modern medicine. Many scientists agree that the manifestations are based on the disconnected work of the brain regions. However, there is no refutation of the version of the dysfunction due to the wrong process of neuronal metabolism. In other words, concussion in adults requires careful diagnosis and subsequent treatment. It is better not to take any action on your own, in addition to providing first aid if necessary. In any other situations, you need to wait for the doctors to appear.
Concussion symptoms in adults
It must be said that the disease manifests itself in different ways. It depends on the severity of the injury, the cause of its occurrence, etc. This type of injury is not accompanied by a skull fracture, but exists as a separate disease.
Learn more about concussion symptoms:
- headache, dizziness, unsteady gait, imbalance;
- ringing and noise in the ears, creating a feeling of discomfort;
- visual problems, often dark in the eyes, flies appear;
- nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite;
- stun, complete or partial loss of consciousness;
- intolerance to loud sounds, excessive photosensitivity;
- weakness, increased sweating, redness or blanching of the skin.
General he alth in most cases is satisfactory, the patient has a partial clouding of consciousness, a feeling that the person is stunned. Buzzing in the ears is a common occurrence whenthis kind of injury. Nausea occurs due to irritation of the vomiting receptors. Among the signs of a concussion in an adult, an unsteady gait and regular darkening of the eyes stand out. In rare cases, seizures are found in patients, which are the result of excessive excitation of the cerebral cortex.
Injury severity
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. Grades of traumatic brain injury:
- Mild concussion. This is the case when the patient was unconscious for less than five minutes or did not lose it at all. The general condition of the victim is regarded as positive. There are no serious symptoms in the form of impaired coordination and movement.
- Medium degree. The man lay unconscious for no more than fifteen minutes. The doctor assesses the patient's condition with such an injury as moderate. The victim is experiencing symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
- Severe degree. The most unpleasant case was when a person was unconscious for fifteen or more minutes. The patient's condition is regarded as severe and is characterized by a violation of the internal organs. In this case, the most severe symptoms of concussion are observed. Patient needs emergency medical attention.
Which doctor should I contact?
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. You need to understand one thing: 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 have one of these signs, you should choose a traumatologist. With significant bleeding, urgent surgical intervention is often necessary, so the patient is sent from the emergency room to the general surgery department.
A neurologist should be consulted if a person feels satisfactory after an injury. In case of external injuries, it is better to visit a traumatologist. After all, this particular doctor specializes in traumatic brain injuries.
Concussion baby
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 occur as a result of being hit by a heavy object, falling and other emergencies that a child often encounters. Damage can be recognized by characteristic signs. In the event of a concussion in a child,the following symptoms:
- paleness of the skin, which is abruptly replaced by redness;
- single or repeated vomiting;
- loss of consciousness, complaints of severe headache;
- nosebleeds, shortness of breath, changes in pupil size.
If these signs are ignored, they may become chronic in the future. 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 diagnose the injury in a timely manner and begin treatment. A concussion is a serious injury, especially if the victim is a small child. 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, episodes of imbalance and aggression are recorded, which patients later regret. What are the possible complications of a concussion? Recurrence of injury often leads to encephalopathy. That is, the neurons of the brain degrade due to violations of local blood circulation. This injury is very common among boxers, as they can get concussions on a daily basis.
To recognize the complication, special attention should be paid to the motor skills of the lower extremities. In many cases, you can observe an unsteady gait, staggering, problems with balance. There are situations when the psyche changes quite noticeably. This is expressed inlethargy and confusion, a person has a reduced vocabulary, he cannot clearly express his thought, etc.
In fact, the list of complications is quite extensive. Each person experiences trauma in their own way, hence the many possible consequences. The victims have a mental disorder, neurosis, depression. In addition, blood pressure may rise on a regular basis, seizures, sweating, pallor, etc. are observed. Sometimes the patient suffers from psychosis, supported by hallucinatory and delusional syndromes. But these pathologies occur much less frequently.
Diagnosis
As already noted, the disease can be recognized by the characteristic symptoms. Eyewitness testimony can be key. Basically, the doctor needs to know the circumstances under which the injury was received and the time the victim was unconscious. A concussion does not have diagnostic features that would be considered objective. After an injury, 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.
For the final approval of the diagnosis, the doctor conducts additional studies:
- radiography, with which you can exclude several options at once, such as a crack and fracture of the skull;
- encephalography allows you to see focal lesions in the vessels, from which no one is immune from damage;
- computed tomography is scheduleddoctor 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 the hemorrhage or hematoma.
General Therapy
How to treat a concussion? Despite the fact that in medicine this injury belongs to the category of lungs, it still requires mandatory treatment. In some non-serious situations, the doctor allows therapy 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 a concussion will cause in the victim. In a hospital environment, the likelihood of serious problems is significantly reduced. And if this does happen, professional help will be provided.
First aid
Before talking about the treatment of concussion, it is necessary to consider the issue of first aid. It is from these actions that the further condition 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 for him to rest.
If the victim did not lose consciousness, he needs to lie down and slightly raise his head. In the case when the patient has lain unconscious for some time, measures must be taken:
- lay on side, preferably right;
- turn your head so that your face is pointing down;
- left leg and armit is recommended to lay at an angle of ninety degrees.
This position has several advantages: firstly, it will be comfortable for the victim to lie in such a position, and secondly, if the patient vomits, the liquid will drain down and not enter the respiratory tract. In case of a wound on the head, it should be treated.
It is worth noting that even the mildest concussion is a head injury. The victim simply needs bed rest for several days. After this time, if the patient feels well, you can get up, walk, etc.
Medicated treatment
How to treat a concussion with medication? Modern medicine does not give an unequivocal 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 is tormented by 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 Relaxon.
Traditional medicine
Unconventional therapies are controversial, as they are very effective in some situations and completely useless in others. 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 traditional methods of therapy.
Let's 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 poured 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, they need to be mixed, and the finished mixture (two tablespoons) should be poured with boiling water. Then wait twenty minutes to infuse. Divide the decoction into six parts and take throughout the day.
Both remedies are used until all unpleasant symptoms disappear.
Consequences
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:
- Post-commotion syndrome. This option is considered the worst. The disease often spreads over severalmonths, and manifests itself a few days after the injury. Among the signs, the most noticeable are nervousness, insomnia, acute headache.
- Excitability and instability. One of the most common consequences is aggression and irritability. As a result of damage, the patient's psyche suffers greatly, hence such side effects.
- Seizures. This kind of convulsions strongly resemble epilepsy, here first aid comes first in importance.
- Depression, hypersensitivity to alcohol.
The damage in question can be safely attributed to one of the lightest craniocerebral injuries. A distinctive feature is the ability to restore brain functions. For this to happen, you need to visit a doctor in time and undergo a course of therapy.
In our material, we talked about the symptoms and treatment of a concussion, and also considered the rules of first aid and possible consequences. It is better not to ignore the injury and immediately make an appointment with a specialist.
