Part 1 - A&P of TBI Flashcards
Define TBI
TBI occurs as a result of a head injury which results in the disturbance of normal brain function
What is the cause?
Story (2017) suggests that TBI is usually caused as a result of trauma and a sudden or violent impact to the head.
What is a Subdural Haematoma?
A SDH is a collection of blood that forms below the dura mater, in between the arachnoid mater. which results from a tear or rupture of the cortical bridging veins, that connect the superficial veins, to the dural venous sinuses.
The forces cause a bleed to occur, and a haematoma forms along the curvature of the brain (Robinson, 2023).
What is a Primary Brain Injury?
This is the initial injury to the brain and its associated structures that results instantaneously from an impact to the head (Caroline, 2014)
Any damage to the brain at the time of this initial injury is permenant. (ref)
What is a Secondary Brain Injury?
This is the after effects of a primary brain injury and can occur from minutes to days, or weeks after the initial injury.
SBI - can include hypoxia, ischaemia, infection and raised ICP (Cook, et al. 2022).
What are the 3 types of SDH?
Acute, Sub- Acute and Chronic
Acute - occurs anywhere upto 3 days?
Sub-Acute - 3-7 days
Chronic - 21 days - can become symptomatic from direct compression of underlying structures and does not usually result in ischaemia or secondary neuronal injury
What happens anatomically when SDHs grow?
As SDHs grow in size, and volume increases the brain parenchyma is compressed and displaced, leading to a rise in ICP and herniation can occur.
Haematoma can grow either; through osmosis drawing fluid in, or as the mass changes and disintegrates (Cook, et al. 2022).
Fluid accumulates due to Angiogenic Stimuli forming weak blood vessels within the haematoma membrane wall. This triggers an inflammatory response leading to an increase in fluid.
