The child fell on the back of his head and had a headache. What happened?

Everyone will fall down during the process of growing up, especially children. It is normal to bump into things, but if they hit their head, parents should pay attention to observe their children's situation. If you only experience a headache at the time, it may be just a superficial injury. However, if it is accompanied by dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, you need to consider it as a concussion and go to the hospital for treatment. Let’s learn about the symptoms of concussion and rule it out or get treatment as soon as possible.

Concussion refers to a brief brain dysfunction that occurs immediately after a blow to the head. There is no obvious change in pathological changes, and the mechanism of occurrence is still under debate. The clinical manifestations include transient coma, retrograde amnesia, headache, nausea and vomiting, and no positive signs are found in neurological examination. It is the mildest type of brain injury and can usually be cured with treatment. It can occur alone or in combination with other craniocerebral injuries such as intracranial hematoma, and attention should be paid to making a differential diagnosis in a timely manner.

Clinical manifestations

1. Disturbance of consciousness: It is mild and short-lived, lasting as short as a few seconds or minutes, but not more than half an hour.

2. Recent amnesia: After waking up, the individual cannot recall the circumstances and process of the injury, but can clearly recall events before the injury.

3. Other symptoms: headache, dizziness, nausea, anorexia, vomiting, tinnitus, insomnia, photophobia, inattention and slow reaction.

4. There are no positive signs in neurological examination.

Four inspections

Lumbar puncture showed normal intracranial pressure, and some patients had decreased intracranial pressure. The cerebrospinal fluid is colorless and transparent, does not contain blood, and the white blood cell count is normal. Biochemical tests are mostly within the normal range, and some may reveal a significant increase in acetylcholine content, a decrease in cholesterase activity, and an increase in potassium ion concentration.

1. Skull X-ray

No fractures were found.

2. Brain CT scan

There were no obvious abnormal changes in the skull and brain.

3. Electroencephalogram

The EEG is usually normal several months after the injury.

4. Cerebral blood flow examination

There may be a decrease in cerebral blood flow in the early stage after injury.