Symptoms

Not every head injury requires a trip to the ER. But if you sustain a head injury with any of the following symptoms, you should be seen in an emergency room:

• Loss of consciousness at the time of the injury
• Confusion or disorientation after the injury
• Evidence of deteriorating mental status

Also, if you experience any of these symptoms within 24 hours of a head injury, you need to go to the emergency room, even if you felt okay at the time of injury.

Any individual who suffers a head injury followed by any of these severe symptoms should be evaluated in an emergency room:

• Unusual behavior or confusion
• Progressive or worsening symptoms
• Weakness, numbness, slurred speech
• Difficulty with eye movements
• Worsening or severe headache
• Seizure
• Vomiting multiple times
• Difficulty waking up or arousing
• Discharge of clear fluid or blood from the nose or ears

Causes

Head injuries are taken very seriously in the medical community, involving trauma to the scalp, skull, or brain. Head injuries can lead to serious mental issues, disabilities, or even death. The most common causes of head injury are Falls, Physical Violence, Sports Incidents, Blast injuries due to explosions, child abuse, or simply being struck by an object.

Treatments

Anyone taken to an emergency room with a head injury will be given basic neurological tests and may have neuroimaging tests such as a CT scan. A concussion does not cause structural damage to the brain, so these scans are used primarily to rule out a more severe injury, especially bleeding inside the skull. If the scans show visible damage, the diagnosis is usually “mild traumatic brain injury” (TBI). If the scans show no visible injury, the patient will be evaluated for a concussion.

Since there’s no simple test for diagnosing a concussion, the process takes several steps:

• Interview to document the extent of any retrograde amnesia (loss of memory of the events immediately before the injury), loss of consciousness, or post-traumatic amnesia (loss of memory of events after the injury). Post-traumatic amnesia is the best indicator of a patient’s prognosis after a concussion, so this step is crucial.
• Determination of the range and severity of post-concussion symptoms on the field. There are several standardized scales
• Examination for any neurologic signs or symptoms: Tests of strength, sensation, reflexes, coordination, cranial nerve functions, mental status, and other neurologic functions to determine any serious injury to the brain.