CLOSED HEAD INJURY INFORMATION
 A closed head injury is a classification of a head injury. A head injury is a trauma to the head that results in a skull, brain, or scalp injury. A closed head injury is when the injury to the head does not penetrate the skull.
Closed head injuries can be the result of any type of accident. A personal injury that results in a closed head injury is sometimes due to a faulty product or negligence. Many instances of closed head injuries are caused from a trauma to the brain when the head strikes another object, the head is struck with force, and the brain undergoes movement within the skull without visual trauma to the exterior of the head.
Closed head injuries are often hard to determine the extent of the injury due to the appearance of little or no harm done because there is not an open wound but there may be a need for physical, cognitive, and emotional treatment.
Every year, approximately two million people sustain a head injury. Most of these injuries are minor because the skull provides the brain with considerable protection -- thus symptoms of minor head injuries usually resolve with time. However, more than half a million head injuries a year are severe enough to require hospitalization.
In patients who have suffered a severe head injury, there is also often one or more other organ systems injured. An important consideration in early management of these cases is that there is approximately a 5% incidence of associated spine fractures with significant head injury.
Some head injuries result in prolonged or non-reversible brain damage. This can occur as a result of bleeding inside the brain (intracranial hematoma), or high shearing forces that damage the nerve cells of the brain (diffuse axonal injury). These more serious head injuries cause deficits that vary with the degree of brain injury.
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