Despite Modern Medicine, Head Trauma Continues To Be A Problem Area
Of enormous public health concern is the traumatic brain injury that in spite of all the different modern medicines available in the 21st century continues to be a problem area. The majority of patients with head trauma can be classified as having mild head injuries while the rest may have severe to moderate injuries. Society has to pay a staggering cost - both in economic as well as emotional terms - and almost all those that have suffered severe head injuries, and the great majority (two-thirds) of those with moderate injuries may become permanently disabled and would be unable to return to their premorbid level of functioning.
US Spends 25 Billion Dollars In Head Trauma Care
The US pays an estimated over US$25 billion to take care of head trauma costs and this figure does not include inpatient care, and the impact is far greater when one considers that most severe head injuries occur in adolescents as well as young adults. Furthermore, the US with a population of approximately 300 million, has about 600,000 new head trauma cases per year with ten percent of these cases being fatal and causes 550,000 people to be hospitalized each year with head injuries.
Though head trauma does affect the head, it may not always cause damage to the brain and is a common cause of childhood hospitalization. The most common cause of head injuries is traffic accidents, home as well as occupational accidents, falls as well as assaults. The incidence of bicycle accidents causing head-injury-related deaths and disability is also very common among children.
Head injuries can affect both the brain as well as other parts of the head including the scalp and skull, and they may be closed or open. The closed or non-missile head injury is one that does not cause the skull to be broken. The penetrating head injury happens when an object will pierce the skull and also breach the dura mater. In fact, epidural hematoma in which there is rapid accumulation of hematoma between the dura mater and the cranium will see many such patients having head trauma that entails loss of consciousness, followed by lucid periods and then loss of consciousness, once again.
Some patients with head trauma can stabilize while the condition of others may deteriorate. It is usual for patients with head trauma to have drowsiness, but they can be easily aroused and they also suffer headaches, and vomit after injury. In addition, head trauma patients that become unconscious for an hour or more have twice the risk to develop Alzheimer's disease later on in life
