What A Concussion Is And How To Detect It

A Concussion is one of several kinds of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  Traumatic Brain Injuries are often the result of impacts to the head, either by a bump or blow to the head or the head crashing into a hard object.  Traumatic Brain Injuries can also result from a violent jolt or shaking of the head, even if the head itself does not impact with any hard object.  A crash wherein the body may receive the impact forces, and the head whiplashes back and forth without making contact with any hard surface, is one such example of a possible cause of concussion without any blow or impact to the head.  Incidents that could cause blows to the head, and therefore potentially cause concussions, are usually hard contact sports, vehicular crashes, falls, and fights.

Remember that the brain itself is surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid which is designed to cushion the brain from making contact with the skull.  After all, the brain is not designed to make hard contact with the skull.  Concussions usually result when the soft tissue that is the brain, shakes so violently such that it moves inside the skull, to the point that it comes in contact with the skull’s hard inner surface.  The contact between the soft and hard tissue can sometimes be hard enough that it causes damage to the soft tissue, the brain, and its blood vessels.  The damage to the soft tissue could be a simple bruising, or a more serious swelling, to a far more serious bleeding.

Concussions differ in severity, and are graded into 5 categories.  A Grade 0 is the least severe, usually just a headache or difficulty concentrating.  All the way to Grade 3, which is a black out for less than a minute, to a Grade 4, which means blacked out for longer than a minute.  The determining factors for whether a concussion is Grade 1, or 2, are based on the symptoms that the patient is exhibiting.

Note that symptoms do not always present themselves obviously immediately after the concussion occurs.  Some symptoms may manifest very subtly at first, progressing in severity over time.  This is why it is important to pay attention for the signs and symptoms of a concussion whenever there is an incident that occurs wherein there was impact on the head, or violent shaking of the head and brain.  That being said, here now are the signs and symptoms to look out for to determine whether or not you, or someone you are caring for, is suffering from a concussion.