Traumatic Brain Injury Case Study

Traumatic Brain Injury
A description and criteria for Traumatic Brain Injury using DSM-IV-TR
According to the Center for Disease Control, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when an individual sustains a jolt to his head or a piercing head damage that interrupts the functions of human brain. The degree of TBI varies from mild to traumatic. Mild TBI occurs when a person loses consciousness for a short period. Traumatic TBI on the other hand occurs when an individual experiences long-term period of unconsciousness that normally lead to amnesia. TBI can lead to a number of temporary and lasting emotional and behavioral regulation problems (Niehuser, 2009). According to the DSM-IV-TR criteria, symptoms of TBI include dizziness, headache,
Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is one of the frequently used severity classification systems to determine the degree of TBI. The GCS scale is normally used for the preliminary assessment of TBI severity. It is an experimental prognostic pointer and helps in early assessment of the severity of brain damage.
In Mary’s case, the GCS scale could have been used to determine whether she received any initial resuscitative measures by the poolside. The GCS can be used to ascertain if Mary had any prior history of head injury. The GCS scale consists of simple form with yes/no/unknown content responses that the nurse could use to determine the severity of TBI experienced by Mary (Ara &Bhat, 2010). The medical severity of intracranial damages is shown by the level of consciousness, determined by the GCS scale. In many cases, there is a close affinity between a low GCS score and poorer outcome. In patient with severe TBI, the motor element of the GCS has the most prognostic value since the eye and verbal response in these patients is usually missing. However, in Mary’s case, the predictive value of the eye and verbal elements of the GCS scale was significant because she was able to respond to verbal and tactile stimuli. She was also able to look at the nurses and moved her finger upon request. Thus, the predictive value
A diagnostic perspective is usually done in TBI cases and entails an evaluation of the probability of structural brain injury, developing an intracranial hematoma and providing suggestions for CT scanning. For instance, a recent study utilized a prediction rule to make out a subset of individuals who had minimal risk for intracranial injury that CT scans not necessary. These kind of diagnostic results are chiefly relevant among patients whose intracranial pressure is examined in the intensive care units but such predictive rules have not been established. For victims with moderate and severe TBI, the prognosis of clinical result is critically important (Lingsma & Roozenbeek, 2010). Age is one of the major forecasters of mortality and functional result in TBI. According to numerous studies, old age is closely associated poor result. The correlation between age and outcome becomes progressively poor when the victim is aged above 35 years (Lingsma & Roozenbeek, 2010). Other demographic features such as ethnicity and sex are also related with the outcome after the occurrence of TBI. For example, men are highly likely to face TBI due to their high propensity for road traffic mishaps (Lingsma & Roozenbeek, 2010).
The correlation between outcome and ethnic background after TBI generated contentious debates until a Meta analysis was carried out over 5300 patients from diverse cultures. The results of the