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 brain 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 findings can be observed in each patient. The clinical findings seen in patients are related to which part of the brain is affected. I have a patient whose frontal lobe, which we call the prefrontal region, was damaged in a traffic accident and who was brought with complaints of serious behavioral disorders, aggression and forgetfulness. I have a patient who comes to me bedridden because the brain area that allows our arms and legs to move is affected. Or I have a patient whose speech suddenly stops because the speech center in the brain that provides the ability to speak is affected. I have a patient whose center of consciousness is affected as a result of an electric shock and who is brought in completely unconscious. All patients’ complaints started recently and suddenly. Is it very important for us doctors that the event started suddenly and recently? We are now excited by a new development called synaptogenesis-neurogenesis. Synaptogenesis means that neighboring cells take over the duty of dead brain cells and heal the damage in the brain. 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 for these patients to start treatment in the first 3 months of the event.

Treatment of brain damage due to head trauma
What do we do in the treatment?

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