Brain injury can be very tricky to find and properly assess and treat

Brain injury can be very tricky to find and properly assess and treat, doctors have learned. Very often, the location of the actual injury is not at the point of impact. When an impact does not have the force to breach the skull, but is significant enough to cause injury, the force can be transferred to thinner bones found in other places, such as the base of the skull.

Physicians in New York and Westchester County sometimes use the term ‘countrecoup’ to describe head injuries that result from an impact on the other side of the head. Contrecoup injuries are caused by rapid and localized pressure changes on the surface of the brain due to force transmitted by a sudden impact. These injuries can also be caused by the brain actually moving inside the skull and sustaining injury from striking the bony surfaces.

The location of the head injury is also important, studies have learned. As far back as 200 years ago, physicians have been noting that injuries to the frontal portion of the brain tend to be less severe than injuries taken to other parts of the brain. Research has shown this to be the case time and again, both from experiments and from collecting medical data. There are, however, studies that suggest that the nature of head injuries may be far more complex than that, depending upon the location of the injury. The very complexity of the brain itself makes it difficult for physicians and other medical experts to establish a clear pattern when it comes to head injuries.