Complications of traumatic brain injury
The risk of complications increases with the severity of the trauma;[1] however even mild traumatic brain injury can result in disabilities that interfere with social interactions, employment, and everyday living.
[2] TBI can cause a variety of problems including physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral complications.
Symptoms that may occur after a concussion – a minor form of traumatic brain injury – are referred to as post-concussion syndrome.
[6] Most patients with severe TBI who recover consciousness experience cognitive disabilities, including the loss of many higher-level mental skills.
Cognitive deficits that can follow TBI include impaired attention; disrupted insight, judgement, and thought; reduced processing speed; distractibility; and deficits in executive functions such as abstract reasoning, planning, problem-solving, and multitasking.
About one in five career boxers is affected by chronic traumatic brain injury (CTBI), which causes cognitive, behavioral, and physical impairments.
[13] Caused by repetitive blows to the head over a long period, the condition primarily affects career boxers and has recently been linked to other contact sports including American football and ice hockey as well as military service(see Ann McKee).
It commonly manifests as dementia, or declining mental ability, memory problems, and parkinsonism (tremors and lack of coordination).
Problems with spoken language may occur if the part of the brain that controls speech muscles is damaged.
Damage to the part of the brain that controls the sense of touch may cause a TBI patient to develop persistent skin tingling, itching, or pain.
[18] People with TBI continue to be at greater risk for psychiatric problems than others even years after an injury.
[17] Behavioral symptoms that can follow TBI include disinhibition, inability to control anger, impulsiveness, lack of initiative, inappropriate sexual activity, and changes in personality.
[21] Other serious complications for patients who are unconscious, in a coma, or in a vegetative state include pressure sores, pneumonia or other infections, and progressive multiple organ failure.
Coagulopathy after a TBI can appear, due to specific biochemical processes, which can in turn lead to further serious complications, such as progressive hemorrhagic injury.
Parkinson's disease, a chronic and progressive disorder, may develop years after TBI as a result of damage to the basal ganglia.
Generally it occurs within the first year of the injury and is characterized by worsening neurological outcome, impaired consciousness, behavioral changes, ataxia (lack of coordination or balance), incontinence, or signs of elevated ICP.
