Traumatic Brain Injury: Cause and Effect

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Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a result of a sudden blow to the head when an external force is applied causing a disruption of the physiological stability of the brain. It can also occur when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain tissue and when elevation in the intracranial pressure occurs it can potentially change the blood flow within and to the brain. These changes may produce a diminished or altered state of consciousness. Traumatic brain injury is a non-degenerative, non-congenital defect in which there may be permanent or temporary impairment to cognition. TBI or concussions can cause long-term or short-term brain damage among a long list of effects. It is dangerous but the effects can be cured or altered by early detection. TBI or traumatic brain injury being synonymous with concussion is a blow or jolt to the head that disrupts brain function. There have been many different, yet the same, definitions of concussion over the years, decades and even centuries. The Oxford English Dictionary defines concussion as the action of violently shaking or agitating; particularly, the shock of impact or injury caused to the brain, spine, or other part by the shock of a heavy blow, fall, etc. Trotter (1924) stated that it is an essentially transient state due to head injury which is of instantaneous onset, manifests widespread symptoms of purely paralytic kind, does not, as such, comprise any evidence of structural cerebral injury, and is always followed by amnesia for the actual moment of the accident. Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Committee on Head Injury Nomenclature (1966) states that a concussion is a clinical syndrome characterized by the immediate and transient post-traumatic impairment of neural function such as alteration of consciousness, disturbance of vision or equilibrium due to mechanical forces. There are many more definitions however,

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