Q1
According to research from the centers for disease control and prevention, head injuries are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the US in
... [Show More] 2019. The number of head injury-related deaths, ER visits, and hospital admissions increased by 53% between 2006 and 2014. In 2014, 155 persons per day on average lost their lives to traumatic brain injury-related injuries(Findley). Patients who recover from brain trauma may experience consequences such as poor memory, altered sensations (hearing or sight), impaired or altered movement, and emotional difficulties that last a few weeks or their entire lives. 2,529 children were among the 56,800 persons who died from head trauma in 2014 alone. 288,000 hospital admissions, including 23,000 children, were also attributed to TBI (AANS). These included head injuries alone or head injuries combined with other wounds.
Q2
In a 2014 CDC study, falls were found to be the main contributor to brain trauma, accounting for over half (48%) of all TBI-related injuries. The elderly and children were particularly vulnerable to falls; falls caused 49 percent of head trauma in children aged 0 to 17 years, and 81 percent of admissions to emergency rooms for head injuries. In the United States in 2014, blunt head trauma was the second most common type of head injury, accounting for around 17% of all head injuries. About 20% of TBIs or TBI-related injuries are caused by motor vehicle accidents (Bucheri). These figures are seriously alarming.
Q3
After being engaged in a car accident, Joyce was ejected from the car. This is regarded as a significant damage mechanism. In this case, the neck is restrained by a Philadelphia collar. The collar will immobilize the neck, keeping the head in a comfortable alignment and reducing pain. She may have sustained whiplash injuries as a result of the collision. A lengthy spine board is utilized because spinal injury is thought to be the cause of Joyce's primary mechanism of injury.
Q4
The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a nervous system evaluation tool used to gauge a patient's degree of consciousness and neurological condition. Examining patients who had experienced brain trauma was its main application. Three categories make up the GCS: verbal response, movement response, and eye opening response. The highest GCS score is 15, which indicates that the subject is awake and oriented to time, place, person, and event. The lowest GCS score indicates that the subject is either dead or in a coma. The degree or seriousness of head trauma is evaluated using the GCS (Nik et al.). A GCS of 8 or less indicates a serious brain injury, a GCS of 9 to 12 indicates a significant brain injury, and a GCS of 9 to 15 indicates a mild brain injury.
Q5
Head trauma commonly causes linear, depressed, basilar, and diastatic skull fractures. The most frequent ones are linear fractures, which involve breaks in the skull’s bone running transverse to the whole thickness of the skull. Typically, these fractures heal on their own, without the need for surgery. Depressed fractures are comminuted fractures in which the broken bones are forced inward. They are typically brought on by blunt head trauma. These fractures provide a high risk of injury to the brain’s fragile tissues, which typically necessitate surgery to restore the underlying tissues. Diastatic fractures occur where the sutures in the skull are broken. Basilar fractures, which involve a break in the bone near the base of the head, are the most severe kind of fractures. Raccoon eye (bruising around the eye) and battle sign bruise are also seen along with this fracture. They may also have clear drainage from their nose and ear (cerebrospinal fluid). A shallow cut to the head, headache, dizziness, loss of balance, memory loss, changed level of consciousness, blurred vision, and nausea are some of the clinical signs of moderate head trauma (Roygardner et al.). Unconsciousness, a continual headache, vomiting and diarrhea, difficulty speaking, seizures, hemorrhage or clear fluid coming from the ears and nose, a sluggish pupil reaction to light, and an open head wound are all symptoms of moderate and severe head trauma.
Q6
Nasogastric tubes are not advised while orogastric tubes are suggested for patients with basilar skull fractures. The cerebral compartment may become disturbed if a nasogastric tube is inserted. [Show Less]