“Can A Concussion or TBI Go Undetected?”

“I was injured in a car accident and have had many problems I think were related to a concussion for several years.”

Can a concussion or other brain injury go undetected?

Depending upon many factors, it may never be detected by a healthcare practitioner due to so many reasons including…

• a person may not be familiar with symptoms that indicate that they have a concussion or some degree of traumatic brain injury,
• a person may not have any significant symptoms due to the tbi (traumatic brain injury) initially or even later (due to some of the factors below),
• the severity of the traumatic brain injury,
• there may be no symptoms present that would indicate a potential brain injury at the time you see a healthcare practitioner or that would lead you to see someone,
• a person may not report symptoms that would lead a practitioner down the path of looking more closely for the potential injury – AND the practitioner doesn’t ask specific questions of the injured person to discover potential underlying injury,
• other injuries may take precedence during the evaluation and may obscure the brain injury,
• certain medications or pre-existing health problems might obscure the underlying brain injury,
• the healthcare provider may be in far too much of a hurry to investigate unfortunately,
• the healthcare practitioner may not have any significant competence in this area and doesn’t know how to evaluate a person for some degree of concussion or tbi especially if it’s not absolutely obvious,

These are just a few of many considerations.

Evaluating and Managing A Concussion or TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury)

This is why it’s so important to not only go to the ER (if you have a head injury – go but this is only step one). A person needs to follow up with a healthcare practitioner that knows what to look for and how to evaluate the person who has a potential (or obvious) concussion or traumatic brain injury.

Identifying the problem is only the first step.

Recovery is the next and depending upon the person with so many different factors effecting this – many lifestyle modifications and treatments (physical treatments that may include types of specific exercise and neurological rehabilitation) may very well be necessary to improve recovery, regain function, and reduce risks of long term effects.

Severity of the Brain Injury

Some tbis are very severe and no matter what is done will not recover all function unfortunately. There are always things that can be done to improve something but in more severe cases, there is just too much damage.

In much less severe tbi cases, there are many potential problems including the possibility of permanent changes in the brain’s immune system that drive damage and inflammation. This leads to many problems over time depending upon many different factors. There are recommendations and treatments that can often really help in these cases.

Choosing the Right Doctor(s)

The real problem is that helping people recover from these injuries requires a healthcare practitioner to have knowledge in several different areas and it’s just not very common.

The practitioner has to understand neurology (how to evaluate the person and use specific markers to see how different interventions change function), neurological rehabilitation (how to drive function in specific areas at the right intensity and frequency to make a difference), metabolic factors (various health problems – breathing problems, various anemias, blood sugar/insulin problems, autoimmunity, and more in addition to diet and other lifestyle factors to improve various metabolic problems), and more.

This isn’t go see a doctor for 5 minutes and get an MRI type process followed by a referral to PT to do some standard treatment recipe for tbi or concussion.