Concussion in children

Brain concussion in children is more common in children's traumatology. At the same time, in most cases, children are required to be hospitalized when they receive traumatic brain injury. About 120,000 children are diagnosed every year in hospitals in Russia.

The following categories are assigned to craniocerebral injuries in terms of severity:

- mild severity or just a concussion of the brain,

- the average severity, which includes injuries with brain contusions of light and also of moderate severity,

- and severe, when there is a severe brain contusion , with intracranial hematomas, with a squeezing of the brain, a fracture of the base of the skull.

Fortunately, almost all of the children's TBI accounts for almost 90% of concussions.

We consider this category of children's TBI. The reason for the high level of injuries in children is increased motor activity, their restlessness and curiosity. To this, imperfect motor skills and weak coordination of movements are added . In addition, children have a lower sense of danger and fear of heights. And the heads of the kids have a relatively large weight, so their falls occur, usually upside down, and they are not insured with their hands.

Concussion in children is not associated with gross, irreversible changes in it, and such a trauma, fortunately, very rarely leads to serious complications.

Here it is necessary to take into account that the human brain in childhood (and especially in the infant) has significant differences from the adult brain. Therefore, the concussion in the child has a characteristic difference from the course of this trauma in an adult.

When an adult has a brain concussion, it makes itself felt by the following main signs:

- Possible loss of consciousness for a few seconds, and even for a longer period of time;

- the victim begins nausea and vomiting;

- there is a headache;

- amnesia is possible, i.e. When a person falls out of memory of everything that happened before the injury, the trauma itself and after the injury.

There are also cases of manifestation of some specific neurological symptoms, such as nystagmus, impaired coordination of motion and some others.

Concussion in children is very different. Thus, in children up to one year, such a trauma is characterized by a mild manifestation of symptoms. The child does not have a loss of consciousness, one or multiple vomiting is possible, but it makes him vomit, possibly regurgitating while feeding, becomes pale skin. The child shows unreasonable anxiety and cries, he has drowsiness, lack of appetite, bad sleep.

Concussion in children belonging to the preschool age category is most often accompanied by loss of consciousness, they clearly show nausea and vomiting after trauma. They complain of a headache, their pulse quickens or slows down, unstable arterial pressure appears, the skin turns pale, and sweating appears. The child begins to be capricious, becomes whiny, there is a violation of sleep.

The peculiarity of the child's organism in such a trauma is manifested in the fact that a prolonged course of compensation can be sharply replaced by deterioration of the state. That is, in simple words, it looks like this - a child after falling first feels well, but after a while, the symptomatology begins to appear and quickly grow.

What should parents do when there is a brain concussion in children? The answer can only be one - the child must necessarily be examined by a doctor. And it is best to call an "ambulance", which must necessarily take the child to the hospital, where there are children's neurosurgeons or neurologists. Such a measure will not be superfluous.