Head Injury

Head injury is any type of injury to your brain, skull, or scalp. This can range from a mild bump or bruise to a traumatic brain injury. Common head injuries include concussions, skull fractures, and scalp wounds. The consequences and treatments vary greatly, depending on what caused your head injury and how severe it is.

Some minor head injuries bleed a lot, while some major injuries don’t bleed at all. It’s important to treat all head injuries seriously and get them assessed by a doctor.

In general, head injuries can be divided into two categories based on what causes them. They can either be head injuries due to blows to the head or head injuries due to shaking.

Head injuries caused by shaking are most common in infants and small children, but they can occur any time you experience violent shaking.

Head injuries caused by a blow to the head are usually associated with:

Your head has more blood vessels than any other part of your body, so bleeding on the surface of your brain or within your brain is a serious concern in head injuries. However, not all head injuries cause bleeding.

It’s important to be aware of other symptoms to watch out for. Many symptoms of serious brain injury won’t appear right away. You should always continue to monitor your symptoms for several days after you injure your head.

Common symptoms of a minor head injury include:

The symptoms of a severe head injury include many of the symptoms of minor head injuries. They can also include:

Head injuries shouldn’t be taken lightly. See your doctor right away if you think you have the symptoms of a serious head injury.

In particular, you should always seek immediate medical attention if you experience any of the following:

Motion can sometimes make a head injury worse. Emergency medical personnel are trained to move injured people carefully without causing more damage.

The treatment for head injuries depends on both the type and the severity of the injury.

With minor head injuries, there are often no symptoms other than pain at the site of the injury. In these cases, you may be told to take acetaminophen for the pain.

You shouldn’t take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen or aspirin. These can make any bleeding worse. If you have an open cut, your doctor may use sutures or staples to close it. They’ll then cover it with a bandage.

Even if your injury seems minor, you should still watch your condition to make sure it doesn’t get worse. It isn’t true that you shouldn’t go to sleep after you have injured your head. But you should be woken up every two hours or so to check for any new symptoms. You should go back to the doctor if you develop any new or worsening symptoms.

You may need to be hospitalized if you have a serious head injury. The treatment you receive at the hospital will depend on your diagnosis.

The treatment for severe head injuries can include:

If you’ve had a severe brain injury, you may be given anti-seizure medication. You’re at risk for seizures in the week following your injury.

If your injury is very serious, you may be given medication to put you in an induced coma. This may be an appropriate treatment if your blood vessels are damaged. When you’re in a coma, your brain doesn’t need as much oxygen and nutrients as it normally does.

It may be necessary to do emergency surgery to prevent further damage to your brain. For example, your doctor may need to operate to:

If you’ve had a serious brain injury, you’ll most likely need rehabilitation to regain full brain function. The type of rehabilitation you get will depend on what functionality you’ve lost as a result of your injury. People who’ve had a brain injury will often need help regaining mobility and speech.