Head Trauma: In a Nutshell (Nursing)

00:00 So, let's wrap up this video.

00:02 A TBI is a traumatic insult to the brain.

00:06 It causes a change in a person's physical, emotional, social, vocational abilities, and health.

00:14 So remember, we're talking about some serious life-altering stuff.

00:18 We always want to hear about what happens in ER, in ICU, but there's a lot of life outside of that first critical few days or weeks of a patient's care.

00:27 And a traumatic brain injury affects all aspects of their life.

00:32 So a head injury can be closed or open.

00:35 Remember we're just talking about the languages that we use to talk about head injuries.

00:39 It could be closed or open.

00:40 Now think for a minute.

00:42 Which one has a higher risk for infection, is it a closed head injury or an open one? Right, it's an open injury.

00:51 because that's the definition of an open injury as if you're open to the environment.

00:55 Now what about the initial injury? Well, the initial injury involves a concussion, a contusion, skull fractures, compression, shearing, and tensile stress.

01:03 But the secondary injury is complications because the patient had an initial brain injury or TBI.

01:11 Now acceleration/deceleration injuries include coup-contrecoup.

01:15 Remember that? Coup-contrecoup.

01:17 Sheering and tensile stress.

01:20 Basilar skull fractures are the most serious skull fracture, so make sure you go back and review that one more time.

01:28 Look at your notes and make sure you're really solid on the types of signs you would look for, because basilar skull fractures can become life-threatening.

01:37 Nurses should always be on the lookout for leaking CSF with someone who's had a traumatic brain injury.

01:42 Look for the battle sign, raccoon eyes, and for leaking CSF from the brain or from the ears.

01:49 Well, thank you for watching our video on traumatic brain injuries.