HEAD TRAUMA AND BRAIN INJURY

HEAD TRAUMA AND BRAIN DAMAGE

A healthy brain uses 20% of the blood and energy in our body. The brain is extremely sensitive to being deprived of oxygen and energy. Nerve cells in the brain begin to be damaged and die after 3 minutes. Unfortunately, dead nerve cells cannot be regenerated. However, with the new information we have learned, it is possible to regain the function of damaged cells.

What does brain damage due to head trauma mean?

If you deprive a healthy brain of oxygen, blood flow or energy for any reason, we call the death of nerve cells traumatic brain damage. A sudden traffic accident, sudden blockage of cerebral vessels and damage to the brain are the causes of traumatic brain damage. Pay attention, all the reasons we have listed are sudden causes. In these patients, the brain is damaged quickly and loses its function. Different clinical conditions can be observed in each patient.

The clinical picture seen in patients is primarily related to which part of the brain is affected. I have a patient who was brought to me with serious behavioral disorders such as aggression, forgetfulness, and the frontal lobe of the brain, which we call the prefrontal region, was damaged in a traffic accident. I have a patient who came to me bedridden because the brain area that allows our arms and legs to move was affected. Or I have a patient whose speech suddenly stopped because the speech center in the brain that provides the ability to speak was affected.

I have a patient whose center of consciousness was affected as a result of an electric shock and who was brought to me completely unconscious. All patients’ complaints started recently and suddenly. Is it so important for us doctors that the event started suddenly and is new? Now we are excited about a new development called synaptogenesis-neurogenesis.

Synaptogenesis means that neighboring cells take over the task instead of dead brain cells and the damage in the brain is healed. The event we call synaptogenesis can only be beneficial when we intervene in the patient in the first 1-3 months of the traumatic injury. Therefore, it is important to start treatment in these patients in the first 3 months of the event.

Brain injury treatment due to head trauma

What do we do in treatment? Our main goal is to maximize the capacity of the healthy nerve cell to take over the function of the damaged cell. For this purpose, we perform a three-stage treatment in ensuring synaptogenesis; increasing the blood flow of the brain, strengthening the brain’s energy resources and providing maximum protection to the brain tissue.