March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month

March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month.  Approximately 275,000 people this year will be admitted to hospitals for treatment of brain injuries and another 1.365 million will be seen and released from emergency departments for injuries to the head.   There are 3.1 million persons living in the United States who are dealing with the challenges of living with traumatic brain injuries.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the direct medical costs and indirect costs of traumatic brain injuries is estimated to be $76.3 billion each year.

Please take a few moments to consider and reflect on those suffering from these debilitating injuries.  Maybe you know someone who does suffer.

One of the most frustrating things a TBI- afflicted person goes through is the lack of understanding and empathy from the public.  You can help change that.

Common symptoms of MTBI

As said in our introduction, a person experiencing mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) may appear normal.  Most people you have suffered MTBI can still walk, talk and function.  However, some functions will remain compromised.  Even in patients who do not lose consciousness, a diffuse injury can result in difficulty concentrating, focusing, multi-tasking, and those persons may be easily distracted.  Here is why: in a normal human brain, we have the ability do more than one thing at a time.  For example, most uninjured people can read something and also hear music at the same time, without major disruption.

For those with MTBI, this process may not be possible because a distraction tends to “short circuit” everything.  They tend only to be able to focus on the task and can become easily disrupted by other stimulation.  In computer terms, it’s like the person has less bandwidth and can’t process more than one function, causing the processing to shut down.

Because doctors often can’t or don’t recognize the signs of  a brain injury, the injury becomes frustrating to those around the person with the injury.  He or she may become slow or unable to participate in conversations.

Concussions – Diagnosis

When the brain is forced against the skull, the common term used by most is “concussion” which is a form of mild traumatic brain injury.  Concussions can occur even if a person does not lose consciousness.  In more severe trauma, injuries may also  include loss of consciousness, diffuse axonal injuries, edema, swelling, and lacerations.

Concussions are graded as follows: 1. transient confusion; no loss of consciousness and symptoms clear within 15 minutes typically; 2. transient confusion, no loss of consciousness, altered mental status or symptoms typically last longer than 15 minutes; 3. Loss of consciousness, either short or long.

Medical professionals also rely on the “Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)” in making a diagnosis of MTBI.  The GCS is a numerical ranking system from 3-15.  The scale measures three criteria including whether a person’s eyes are open, best verbal response, and best motor response.  The lower the score, generally, the more severe the injury to the brain.  In a very severe injury, a person may never open her eyes, may not respond verbally and may exhibit little or no motor response.

You may have seen trainers or doctors asking questions of football players after they suffered an on the field injury.  Most likely they are measuring the player’s level of awareness to check for the possibility of concussion or brain injury.