Questions about concussions

  In clinical practice, we often encounter patients with cranial trauma who ask the doctor, “Doctor, am I having a concussion, and think that concussions are extremely serious.        Let’s learn more about what is a concussion?  A concussion is the mildest form of brain injury following a traumatic head injury. It is characterized by a transient dysfunction of the central nervous system immediately after the head injury, which is characterized by a short period of impaired consciousness or retrograde amnesia, mild headache, nausea, vomiting, and possibly vegetative disorders.  The clinical manifestations of concussion are: impairment of consciousness immediately after head injury, and in mild cases, manifests as confusion or trance. The duration of coma usually lasts from a few seconds to a few minutes, and the longest time does not exceed 30 minutes. It may be accompanied by pallor, cold sweat, decreased blood pressure, weak pulse, shallow and slow respiration, reduced muscle tone, and reduced or absent physiological reflexes. The above symptoms can gradually disappear with the recovery of consciousness.  After waking up, there is no recollection of what happened at the time of injury or the period before the injury, i.e. retrograde amnesia. Some patients repeatedly ask questions such as: Where is this? What happened to me? Later, headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms may appear and gradually decrease to disappear within a few days. A few patients may have emotional agitation, involuntary laughter, inattention, reduced thinking ability and judgment, insomnia, photophobia and fear of tremors.  After the occurrence of concussion, there are no positive signs in the clinical examination of the nervous system, normal cranial CT examination, normal lumbar puncture pressure and normal cerebrospinal fluid examination.  If there is headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting or impaired limb movement, convulsions, etc., cranial CT examination should be performed to exclude fracture, brain contusion, late intracranial hematoma, etc.  The treatment of concussion is early hospitalization for 24 hours, bed rest for 3-5 days, and symptomatic treatment.