BCS 242 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Traumatic Brain Injury, Diffuse Axonal Injury, Glasgow Coma Scale
26 Oct 2016
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Diagnosis: glasgow coma scale: 3 measures eye opening, verbal response, motor response ranges from 3-15. Moderate tbi patient will score between 9-12. Severe: 3-8: post-traumatic amnesia: circumscribed period of amnesia post-head trauma. Moderate: state that is 24 hours < state < 7 days. Severe: state > 7 days: length of loss of consciousness. Severe: more than 24 hrs: show brain abnormalities in imaging. 75-90% of cases are mild-moderate tbi- 3,000,000 new cases annually. Pathophysiological effects: diffuse axonal injury: widespread damage to brain"s axons. Stretching, twisting, tearing of axons, rendering axons temporarily dysfunctional/permanently damaged. Occurs due to physical force acting on white matter. Shearing force: unaligned forces that push against each other. Rotational force: brain gets rotated in skull: contusions: bruising tissue damage due to diffusely spread microvascular bleeding. Most contusion occurs in inferior, frontal regions of brain prefrontal, anterior temporal regions: widespread vascular injury: physical forces may cause tearing to small blood vessels, arteries, etc.
