Notes in first aid for people with traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury is a threat to society when traffic accidents and work accidents are increasing in our country. The main cause of traumatic brain injury is traffic accidents, then falls, work accidents, careless accidents or sports.

Traumatic brain injury is a life-threatening risk. In the UK every year 300 out of every 100,000 people are hospitalized due to traumatic brain injury, of which 9 are fatal.
Some deaths are almost inevitable, others are sometimes preventable. Vietnam is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a leading country in traffic accidents in the year.
Many countries around the world have introduced measures such as controlling blood alcohol levels, wearing a belt when sitting in a car, wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle to prevent traumatic brain injury caused by traffic accidents.
In Vietnam, trying to apply the above prevention measures, but the effectiveness is still not high. It is important that the awareness of obeying traffic rules and law enforcement in our country is still limited. Therefore, it is still difficult to reduce traffic accidents today.

Based on brain damage, people divide traumatic brain injury into 3 types:
Concussion is a condition in which the brain is shaken and displaced too strongly by impact leading to damage. Usually affects circulation and extracellular fluid between neuronal compartments. This is the mildest form of the disease. Concussion is a condition in which brain cells are partially damaged. In these areas, the brain organization is edematous, many neurons are in a state of half-life and half-death. This form of the disease is more severe. Intracranial hematoma is the most severe form of the disease. You may hear the doctor say epidural, subdural, intracerebral, intraventricular... all of which refer to an intracranial hematoma. Intracranial hematoma is the most severe form of the disease, which can cause immediate death if the bleeding is excessive and too large.

One of the important things when giving first aid to a traumatic brain injury is to observe the symptoms of the disease, including: bleeding (injury or trauma), waking or unconscious state, headache no, vomiting or not? If the patient does not have the above severe symptoms, there may be no serious illness for the time being. The CT scan is not really necessary. And the priority is to monitor the victim.
But a CT scan must be performed immediately if the patient has a sudden and complete worsening of symptoms or a complete and complete picture above.
Instead of having to send the patient to a higher level or to a large facility that has a CT scanner, it is necessary to take the patient to the nearest general hospital that has a trauma department, a neurosurgery department or an emergency room. for preliminary examination and diagnosis. From here, the doctor will make very accurate judgments and guide you through the next steps at a much cheaper cost than CT scans. Effective with very useful treatment.

Note when transporting the victim, it is necessary for the patient to lie on his back, with his head tilted to one side and absolutely no high pillow. Remember to lie on a hard board to avoid the accompanying spinal cord injury, so there will be no complications to the spinal cord, aggravation.
All bleeding wounds on the skin need to be bandaged and carefully stopped bleeding. Do not proceed to move without doing this well in time. You can best preserve the life of the patient with just a few minutes of dressing.
Under no circumstances should the sick person walk, sit up or run around. Thus, it is possible to temporarily dislodge the clot and move from a non-bleeding concussion to a complete intracerebral hemorrhage. At this point, you will not be able to preserve the disease level for the patient.
No vigorous exercise, no strong emotions, no nerve stimulation, continuous monitoring from 7-10 days. Timely detecting all abnormal signs for immediate treatment is the most useful way you should proceed instead of just focusing on getting a CT scan of the brain.