CNS Flashcards
(205 cards)
What is a traumatic brain injury?
A traumatic insult to the brain possibly producing physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and vocational changes
What organizations use theGlasgow Coma scale
used to describe injury severity by the international and United States National Traumatic Coma Data Banks
TBI classifications: Mild
GCS 13-15 - associated with a mild concussion
TBI classification: Moderate
GCS 9-12 - associated with structural injury such as hemorrhage or contusion
TBI classification: Severe
GCS 3-8 - associated with cognitive and/or physical disability or death
**loss of consciousness for 6hours or more
What populations are at risk for TBI?
Infants 6 months to 2 years School-age children Adolescents and young adults 15-35 years of age People more than 70 years of age Men 1.5 times as likely to sustain a TBI Persons living in high-crime areas
Blunt Trauma
- closed, nonmissile
- Head strikes hard surface or a rapidly moving object strikes the head
- The dura remains intact; brain tissues not exposed to the environment
- Causes focal (local) or diffuse (general) brain injuries
Open Trauma
- penetrating, missile)
- Injury breaks the dura and exposes the cranial contents to the environment
- Causes primarily focal injuries
What are the most common type of brain injury?
mild concussion and classic cerebral concussion
Focal brain injury
- accounts for more than 2/3 of head injuries
- specific and involves observable brain lesions
- contusions
- intracranial bleeding that displaces brain tissue
- cerebral edema
- coup-contrecoup
Diffuse axonal injury (DAI)
accounts for less than 1/3 however accounts for the greatest number of severely disabled survivors
What are some causes of brain trauma?
- Falls 28%
- Motor vehicle crashes 20%
- Moving objects or moving against stationary objects 19%
- Assault 11%
- Sports-related events
- Blasts (military active duty personnel)
Compound fractures
caused by objects striking the head with great force or by the head striking an object forcefully
Basilar skull fracture
- occipital blow- fracture of occipital bone and across the petrous pyramid
- the cervical vertebrae upwardly impacting the base of the skull can produce a posterior fossa basilar skull fracture
Coup
- directly below the point of impact against object
- shearing of subdural veins
- trauma to base of brain
Contrecoup
- on the pole opposite the site of impact (within the skull)
- shearing forces through brain
Coup-Contrecoup
- injuries happen in one continuous motion
- coup - wall
- contrecoup - rebounds
Where are contusions commonly found?
- frontal lobes, particularly at the poles along the inferior orbital surfaces
- temporal lobes, especially in the anterior poles and along the inferior surface
- frontotemporal junctions
The ______ the area of the impact, the greater the severity of injury because the force is _____ into a _____ area.
smaller; concentrated; smaller
Contusions result in what type of changes?
- attention
- memory
- executive attentional function (motivation, planning,)
- affect
- emotion
- behavior
What is the difference between focal contusions and hemorrhagic contusions?
focal contusions are superficial, involving just the gyri whereas hemorrhagic contusions may coalesce into a large, confluent intracranial hematoma
What are the clinical manifestations of a contusion?
- immediate loss of consciousness (no longer than 5 mins)
- loss of reflexes
- transient cessation of respiration
- brief period of bradycardia
- decreased blood pressure (30secs - a few mins)
- a momentary increase in CSF pressure
- ECG and EEG changes on impact
What evaluations do you want to do on someone with a contusion?
- complete history and physical exam
- skull and spinal xray
- CT
- MRI
How is treatment directed with a patient who has a contusions?
controlling ICP and managing symtoms