Wk 12 - Acquired Brain Injury

Question 1

What are some external causes of ABI

Answer 1

• Traffic accidents
• Falls
• Assault
• Sports Related
• Work/industrial accidents
• Poisoning
• Inhalation of organic solvents
• Metabolic disturbances (e.g Diabetic coma)
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• infections and diseases (HIV/AIDS, Bacterial [meningitis and brain abscesses], Viral [herpes simplex], Parasitic [cerebral malaria], Encephalitis [inflammation of CNS due to infection].)

Question 2

What are examples of internal causes of ABI’s

Answer 2

• Strokes/Cerebrovascular accidents.
• Tumours
• Hypoxia/Anoxia

Secondary effects of TBI
- Haemorrhage or Haematoma
- Intracranial pressure
- Oedema or brain swelling
- Post-traumatic epilepsy

Question 3

What are examples of progressive conditions which can lead to ABI?

Answer 3

• Alzheimers disease (and other dementia-type conditions)
• Parkinsons
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Korsakoff’s syndrome (wet-brain)
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease.

Question 4

What are the two primary classifications of TBI’s

Answer 4

• Penetrating head injury
• Closed head injury (brain endures acceleration, deceleration or both)

Question 5

What are the two categories of closed head injuries?

Answer 5

• Coup (primary impact) eg. baseball bat.
• Contrecoup (secondary impact) eg. cowards punch.

Question 6

What are the basic pathomechanism’s of brain injury?

Answer 6

Shearing, stretching and tearing pf neurons.

Question 7

Diff between Contusions and concussions?

Answer 7

Both are closed head injuries.

• Contusions is that which damages the cerebral circulatory system. Results in internal bleeding and haematoma. Are typically localised.
• Concussions show no evidence of structural damage. Less local.

Question 8

What are the two categories of Strokes (Cerebrovascular accident [CVA]) ?

Answer 8

• Ischaemic (e.g thrombosis or embolism… a.k.a Clots.)
• Haemorrhagic (e.g. rupturing of an aneurysm)

Question 8

What are the three categories of consequences of TBI’s

Answer 8

• Physical
• Cognitive
• Emotional and Behavioural effects.

Question 9

What is the difference between a Thrombotic and Embolic strokes?

Answer 9

• A thrombotic stroke is a blood clot.
• A embolic stroke is a build up of fatty plaque (or blood. clot) that breaks away into an artery in the brain.

Question 10

What are the three measures to measure the severity of a stroke?

Answer 10

• The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS): basically tallies patients eye open times, motor responses and verbal responses. Ranks them then scores together to get GCS score. The higher = the milder.
• Level of consciousness (LOC): Scores based on length of time patient is conscious for. The longer conscious for = milder.
• PTA??: I think it’s a procedure where they artificially hold open an artery. The longer spent in PTA = the more severe.