Daily Health Advices

A head injury can cause various medical and surgical problems from mild to severe. Each year in the United States in children with brain injuries cause more than 500,000 million emergency department visits, with more than 95,000 hospitalizations.

While 90% of all brain injuries in children are smaller, around 7,000 children die each year from head injury and another 29,000 develop permanent disability.

In the U.S., the most common causes of pediatric brain injury are car accidents, falls, assaults, bicycle accidents and injuries related to sports. In infants under 1 year of age, more serious brain injuries are related to child abuse.

Children often accidentally bang their heads, causing bumps, bruises or cuts on the scalp, no lesions within the brain. Sometimes, injuries are more serious.

Brain injuries can cause a concussion, which are classified on a scale from I to III, depending on the severity of symptoms. A grade I concussion is the mildest type, in which no shock for 15 minutes or less after brain injury, whereas grade III concussion, including loss of consciousness (fainting) is the most serious. In most cases of shock, x-rays or brain scans show no damage. The shocks do not cause brain damage usually prolonged, but repeated shocks (such as during high-risk activities such as boxing or football) can be dangerous, and put the child at risk of severe brain damage.

Cerebral trauma in children is rarely more serious than a concussion. However, when severe, the injury is usually due to a direct blow to the skull. Sometimes the injury may have been caused indirectly, as when the blood vessels enlarge and rupture, the brain “bounces” against the inner wall of the skull or swelling (inflammation) due to chemical changes.

The most serious types of more severe brain injuries include:

* Skull fracture: a fracture or a fracture of the skull bones. In most cases, a skull fracture causes only a bruise on the brain surface. If the skull sinks (depressed skull fracture), the fragments of broken bone pressed against the surface of the brain. This may require surgery to repair the skull space.
* Epidural hematoma: This is one type of hemorrhage (bleeding) most serious that can occur within the brain as a result of a fractured skull. It happens when a bone point fragment cut one of the major blood vessels in the skull. As damaged blood vessels bleed, blood pools (this is called a hematoma) in the space between the brain and the most salient membrane (dura) covering the brain. The broken blood vessel is usually an artery and hematoma spreads quickly and hit the brain. This can cause great pain and even death. Epidural hematomas are especially common after serious injuries to the temple, like receiving a blow from a ball or baseball bat.
* Subdural hematoma: This is a collection of blood between the brain and the coating surface. It occurs when a brain injury tears any of the large veins that carry blood from the brain surface. Subdural hematomas tend to stretch slowly, sometimes in days and weeks, with symptoms gradually worsen. This type of hemorrhage leads to severe brain injury and even death if not diagnosed and treated promptly.
* Intraparenchymal hemorrhage and contusions (bleeding and bruising in the brain) injuries occur within the brain itself. Both types of injuries are caused by direct impact or indirect in the brain when the force of an injury to one side of the skull causes the brain to bounce against the other side. This causes brain damage side opposite to where the impact occurred.

After each major brain injury, may have inflammation (swelling) in the brain that increases the pressure inside the skull. Severe brain injuries, especially those caused by car accidents and falls from heights also can be accompanied by damage to the brain or bones of major organs within the body. These additional injuries often cause blood loss, difficulty breathing, low blood pressure (hypotension) and other problems that may complicate treatment of the child and make recovery more difficult.

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