If you bump into you, you will also have a traumatic brain injury: Doctor shows signs of brain injury in children

Doctor Le Quang My, Department of Neurosurgery, Children’s Hospital 2 (HCMC) said that doctors at the hospital had just operated on an 8-year-old NVT child, living in Dong Nai, who suffered a brain injury after being hit by a car. you in class.

Accordingly, baby T. was transferred to the emergency room by the local hospital in a state of headache and vomiting. Taking the medical history, the family said that the child was playing in the yard, then rushed into the classroom and accidentally bumped into a friend, so he fell to the ground and hit his head on the podium. Right at the class, the child felt a headache and vomited, so the school took him to the local hospital for emergency.

Here, baby T. had a CT scan, the results showed that there was a blood clot on the brain but not much and continued to be monitored. About a moment later, the patient continued to vomit, so he was quickly transferred to Children’s Hospital 2 for emergency.

The American doctor said that because the condition progressed very quickly, the patient was in a deep coma, with bruises on the brain. Quickly, the doctors conducted a focused operation to get the bruised blood, decompress the brain and get more than 100ml of blood from the brain.

According to the American doctor, in neurosurgery, time is very important, the race against time determines the survival and chances of a child’s recovery in the future. Because according to medicine, the brain is only deprived of oxygen for a maximum of 3 minutes, if this time is over, the damage will be greater.

Dr. Nguyen Quang Hung – Department of Neurosurgery, SIS Can Tho International Hospital, said that children with traumatic brain injuries without timely treatment are very dangerous.

In particular, common situations in children with traumatic brain injury such as school children falling or being hit by friends, accidentally collided. These accidents are rarely detected by parents because they are not witnessed.

Risk of traumatic brain injury in children from school accidents.

Children with traumatic brain injury when playing with friends is an unexpected situation, not knowing when the child will fall. Therefore, Dr. Hung said that if a child is lethargic, crying, or has a headache, parents should pay attention.

Traumatic brain injury in children symptoms are difficult to detect. In children who are able to present symptoms, it is easier to tell parents. But younger children are difficult to detect. Parents should note that children have lethargy, stop eating, cry … these symptoms suggest that the child has abnormal signs. Some children have more obvious symptoms of vomiting, convulsions… have hematoma under the skin.

During his professional career, Dr. Hung said that doctors often identify children with traumatic brain injury by their professional experience. Many children go to the usual clinic, it is difficult for the doctor to recognize whether the child has a traumatic brain injury or not.

If there is a fall situation, without dangerous signs such as vomiting, lethargy, parents should not be too worried.

When a child has aggressive signs, they should have a CT scan of the brain to assess whether the child’s brain is abnormal. Symptoms suggestive of traumatic brain injury should not be monitored at home.

If the child is not affected by external forces, does not fall but has a headache, vomiting, parents can send the child to have an MRI scan to assess the damage that may be caused by a broken cerebral vascular malformation.

Dr. Hung said there was a patient who fell the day before, but the child had symptoms similar to minor illnesses, loss of appetite, fatigue until the next day, vomiting, lethargy, parents sent the child to the hospital, it was too late because there was blood. bruises in the brain.

When treating children with traumatic brain injury, Dr. Hung said that when a child has a traumatic brain injury, if the hematoma is not many patients receive medical treatment, relieve pain, prevent swelling and closely monitor clinical symptoms. .

If the hematoma volume does not change for the worse, then conservative treatment. If the volume of hematoma increases, if consciousness is affected, surgery must be performed to remove the hematoma. For children, because the skull is soft, when there is an external force that can cause a concave skull, the doctor drills a hole in the skull and uses an old tool to push the concave area up.

This is also mild surgery. In case of large hematoma compressing the brain, the skull must be opened to find the bleeding point and decompress to avoid postoperative cerebral edema.

Most school accidents are mild and common, so students, teachers and families pay little attention. Although not all collisions are safe, if the child shows signs of pain after the collision, vomiting, it should be taken to the doctor immediately, to avoid serious complications with the child. young.

Khanh Chi