Health Information : Head Injuries

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What are Head injuries?

Head injuries are injuries caused to your brain, skull or scalp. They can vary from a mild bump on your head to a bruise or traumatic brain injury.

Head injury can be classified as either closed or open injury.

• Closed head injury: This injury doesn’t break your skull.
• Open head injury: This injury breaks your skull and enters your brain.

One can`t assess the seriousness of head injury just by looking at it. Therefore, it is important that all head injuries must be taken seriously and immediately evaluated by the doctor.

What are the causes of Head injuries?

Head injuries are mainly caused due to two reasons

• Head injuries caused due to blow to the head: These head injuries are associated with motor vehicle accidents, falls, physical assaults and sports-related accidents.
• By shaking: These head injuries generally occur when infants or small children are shaken. They can even occur in adults when there is violent shaking.

In most of the cases, a person’s skull will protect his brain from damage.

What are the symptoms of Head injuries?

Some common symptoms of minor head injury are:

• Headache
• Light-headedness
• Spinning sensation
• Nausea
• Confusion
• Ringing sensation in ears

Symptoms of severe head injury are:

• Unconsciousness
• Seizures
• Vomiting
• Coordination problems
• Disorientation
• Abnormal eye movements
• Loss of muscle control
• Memory loss
• Mood swings
• Consistent headache that worsens over time

How can Head injuries be treated?

The treatment for head injuries depends on the severity of your condition. For minor head injuries, your doctor may just give medicines or pain killers. In case open cut is there, sutures or staples may be used to close it. For severe head injuries, one may be admitted to the hospital and surgery may be performed to prevent further damage to brain.