preview

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Decent Essays

Concussions are a form of brain injury that is medically defined as a condition that modifies the way in which an individual’s brain essentially functions as a result of significant trauma to the head or body (Mayo Clinic, 2016). While most people believe that concussions can only be sustained by receiving a direct blow to the head itself, concussions can actually develop from any forceful acceleration to either the head or the body as long as the impact is hard enough (Edwards & Bodle, 2014). The amount of energy that is generated by such dynamic contact basically causes the brain to jolt back and forth against the skull surrounding it, thereby damaging the neurological structure almost instantaneously. However, most concussions tend to lean more to the milder side of the brain injury spectrum and, in most cases, the …show more content…

Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), however, are simply another term used to describe a milder form of concussion. Similar to the conceptual definition of a concussion, the World Health Organization Collaborating Neurotrauma Task Force defines an mTBI as being “an acute brain injury resulting from mechanical energy to the head from external physical forces” (Crandall et. al., 2014, p. 1359). Hematomas occur as blood begins to pool in the tissues on the outside of blood vessels as a result of a major injury to the head or brain. Depending on the extent of the injury, however, this can cause increasing and substantial to major vessels of the head and/or brain, thereby causing severe and extensive bleeding within the brain itself. Additionally, there are also a number of different types of hematomas, depending on where the hematoma develops. According to the 2016 report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “different types of hematomas form depending on where the blood collects relative to the meninges. The meninges are the protective membranes surrounding

Get Access