Understanding the Different Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries

It is important to be educated on the various types of brain injuries and to understand your symptoms post-accident. Many accident-related brain injuries go undiagnosed. For example, in an acceleration/deacceleration brain injury, the brain is not touched or struck by any object. Below I list the various types of traumatic brain injuries and briefly explain how these injuries occur.

• Direct Injury to the head. A TBI can occur when your head hits another object. For example, in slip and fall case, commonly an individual will slip and hit their head on the floor or another object. As a result of the force, the brain can bounce around or twist in the skull and stretch the tissues resulting in injury.

• Penetrating Traumatic Brain Injury. When an object passes through the outermost layer of skin, skull and the dura matter under the skull. The dura is the outermost layer of connective tissue that surrounds the brain.A penetrating injury will likely require surgical intervention by a neurosurgeon.

• Acceleration/Deacceleration Injury. You do not need to hit your head to suffer a brain injury. An acceleration/deacceleration injury involves the rapid movement of the head followed by a deacceleration which causes movement of the brain inside the skull. Many have had symptoms of brain injury following an accident but have failed to explore legal remedies because they did not hit their head.

• Diffuse Axonal Injury (DIA). DIA occurs when the brain shifts in the skull resulting in the shearing of nerve cells or axons. Shearing occurs when the axons or nerve fibers in the brain stretch or even tear. When the axons tear, it will cutoff these nerve pathways and shut off areas of the brain. In other words, the brain cannot transmit information amongst the different pathways. DIA commonly occurs in acceleration/deacceleration accidents like motor vehicle collisions. Shearing injuries are not visible on a CT scan.

• Subdural Hematoma. As mentioned, the outermost tissue of the brain is known as the dura. When blood vessels tear, blood pools underneath of the dura and a clot is created which puts pressure on the brain

• Intracranial Hemorrhage occurs when the brain bleeds or when tissues inside of the skull bleed.

• Coup-Contrecoup Injury. A coup injury occurs when the brain hits the skull at the point of impact. A contrecoup injury occurs when the opposite side of the brain hits the skull due to the force or impact.

A neurologist can order various diagnostic tests to confirm a TBIwhich is discussed on our symptoms and diagnosis(link to symptoms and diagnosis page) page to properly diagnose a TBI or concussion.

Contact Us

Contact Jason R. Antoine, traumatic brain injury attorney at (302) 482-4802. If you or a loved one has been involved in a car accident, pedestrian accident, slip and fall or any type of accident that has impacted the brain, call our office to set up a completely free initial case evaluation. At this initial meeting Attorney Antoine will explain your options and potentially refer the case out to a neurologist that is skilled in dealing with traumatic brain injury accident cases. It is important to take appropriate action if you have any symptoms of a brain injury following a crash or accident.