What is traumatic brain injury (TBI)?
Traumatic brain injury refers to an alteration in brain function or other evidence of brain pathology resulting from an impact and/or acceleration/initialization of the brain.
Both closed head injury and penetrating head injuries are classified as traumatic brain injury.
Additionally, a milder form of traumatic brain injury is clinically termed a concussion .
Traumatic brain injury causes both an acute injury due to direct damage and disruption of brain tissue and neural circuitry, plus secondary or delayed injury from other sources.
These include ongoing hemorrhage, hypoxia, ischemia, elevated intracranial pressure, changes in metabolic function, coagulopathy and/or pyrexia, and dementia.
