Cause And Effect Essay On Concussions

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What happens when the brain is injured (i.e., concussion)? Nowadays, head injuries are a main cause of morbidity in the United States. Statistics have shown that there are a huge number of people who present a concussion each year. Moreover, certain groups of the population have more risk of these injuries. Damage to a specific region of the brain cortex can be diagnosed with precise symptoms. In addition, cataloging the patient’s deficits is the only method that specialists can use to determine if something serious had occurred in the concussed brain. In sports, the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool is the most used. In reference to the National Head Injury statistics, in 2003 there were 1,224,000 emergency visits, 290,000 hospitalizations, and 51,000 deaths because of head injuries (McCrea, 2008, p. 3). This makes it necessary to recognize the importance of concussions, also called Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and to identify the signs and symptoms. A concussion is a disturbance in the brain functions produced by a direct blow to the head, neck, face or any part of the body that transmits the impulse force to the head. This type of brain injury is very common in sports. Besides athletes, coaches, people in general should be educated about the detection, assessment …show more content…

Approximately 500,000 children per year suffer a concussion in the United States which makes it one of the gravest health problems in young people. Therefore, concussions are the predominant cause of death and disability in childhood and adolescence. Moreover, at least 80,000 persons, 65 years old or older, go to emergency departments each year because of a head injury; most of them need to be hospitalized. Another factor that influences an individual’s risk of suffering a TBI is gender. Men report a higher amount of concussions than women; rates for males are almost twice that of females (McCrea, 2008, p.

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