Three Invisible Brain Injuries that Can Cause Lasting Personal Injury Damage

It’s easy to imagine how a penetrating brain event, where a foreign object punctures the skull and enters the cranial cavity, produces serious risk of a brain injury. The trauma from this is likely to sever nerves and or cause bleeding that increases pressure.

But there are other causes of brain injuries that can occur in situations where a brain injury seems less likely, though they can occasionally show up in detailed brain imaging scans such as an MRI or a CT scan. Here are three to watch out for:

Hematomas:

Blood is supposed to move freely through the brain, however there are few areas for it to collect in case of an injury. A hematoma is when pools of this blood impact the ability of the brain to function correctly by flooding an area  Hematomas can be described by location in the following three fashions: subdural, epidural or intracerebral.

Diffuse Axonal Injury:

This is a medical term that is related to the whiplash action of the head in response to accelerating or decelerating forces. Basically, the connections in the brain are disrupted and potentially disconnected as the head moves out of relation to the rest of the body. This can cause widespread damage, although the effects may not be seen at first.

Contusions:

Contusions are commonly seen in pro sports as coaches make their injury reports, and are the visible bruising of the brain due to trauma. Oftentimes it is the impact of the brain onto the skull at a speed that makes the cushioning less effective. These should show up on MRIs or in other tests, but may not be visible during initial screenings.