Long Term Cerebral Edema & Pediatric Blunt Head Trauma

If your child experiences a blunt trauma to the head, there are many health concerns that will need to be addressed. While your child's pediatrician may initially diagnose the condition as a form of concussion, you should not expect that symptoms will dissipate immediately or that the head injury will respond spontaneously. While many children experience quick recovery from a head injury, with no long term effects, there is a growing concern that many children are not properly diagnosed with the post-concussion syndrome.

What many parents fail to realize is that a mild concussion is considered a form of a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). When your child experiences any type of concussion, the physician has determined there is a TBI risk that involves an injury associated with rotation, acceleration and deceleration motion to the head. The result may lead to long term health complications, including neurological conditions, which may not manifest for many months or even years. While we many believe the child's brain is more resilient to head injury, as it is with many other types of traumatic injuries, the fact is - the child's brain is far more vulnerable to irreversible damage.

One area of concern that should be addressed by your child's pediatrician involves the prolonged presence of cerebral edema, or swelling within the brain. When combined with pre-disposed conditions such as epilepsy or ADHD, children with a TBI injury, and unresolved swelling around the brain, may encounter greater ADHD and epilepsy complications with age. If you know your child may be pre-disposed to this risk, it will be important that your pediatrician manage and monitor the edema carefully.