Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: What is it and What Does it Do to the Sufferer?

Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is the brain injury that is often overlooked and misdiagnosed. The simple facts that it is invisible, it is mild and it does present in a variety of manifestations cause it to be overlooked. But, saying that a brain injury is mild is not the same as saying it is insignificant. Many sufferers of MTBI usually find themselves disabled in at least one way and unable to return to the lives they were used to living, the lives they had hopes and dreams in store for.

What is MTBI? MTBI is defined as an impact that causes the brain tissue to strike against the bony structure of the skull. This can occur through a sports accident, a serious fall, or an automobile accident. The brain strikes the skull first on the side opposite the impact and then strikes the skull a second time on the side of the impact. Depending on the force of the impact, this action of opposing strikes can be repeated several or many times over. An injury with two opposing and well defined areas of injury is a "contrecoup" type of brain injury. One that is the result of greater force and a greater number of strikes causing multiple areas of injury is a "diffuse" type of brain injury. It is more complex and extensive than the contrecoup type because adjoining nerve cells are torn apart from each other. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) diffuse injuries, which involve many symptom pathways, are the most common because the brain ricochets after an impact. You can locate animations and graphics that illustrate these two types at The CNS (Center for Neuro Skills) Store: http://www.neuroskills.com/cgi-bin/store/CNSstore.cgi?.