Effects of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Comparison of Direct and Indirect Injury Groups

Abstract

The aims were to investigate the general and specific effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and if people with orthopaedic injuries who had sustained their injuries through exposure to acceleration/deceleration force could have sustained a brain injury. The Rapid Screen of Concussion and Digit Symbol Substitution Test were given to patients with mTBI (89 male, 23 female), and patients with orthopaedic injuries that did (27 male, 5 female) or did not (27 male, 15 female) involve deceleration forces within 24 hours of injury. A group of uninjured people (31 male, 12 female) were also tested. Compared to all other groups, patients with mTBI recalled fewer words and correctly answered fewer orientation questions. Patients with either mTBI or deceleration orthopaedic injuries showed slower speed of information processing than patients with nondeceleration orthopaedic injuries or participants without injury. Nondeceleration patients and uninjured participants did not differ. These results suggest that there are both general injury effects and specific mTBI effects on efficiency of cognitive functioning. The results also highlight the probability that patients with a diagnosis of orthopaedic injury who were exposed to acceleration/deceleration forces may have suffered a mild brain injury as well.

Visual working memory deficits in undergraduates with a history of mild traumatic brain injury

“…Barring the development of postconcussive syndrome, recovery is assumed to occur within a few months (Cooper et al, 2015). Early recovery reveals deficits in processing speed (De Monte & Geffen, 2005;Shumskaya, Andriessen, Norris, & Vos, 2012), attention (Catale, Marique, Closset, & Meulemans, 2008;Konrad et al, 2011;Mayer et al, 2012), and episodic memory (Wammes, Good, & Fernandes, 2017), and few have assessed cognitive performance in the chronic mTBI population, who are more than 3 months postinjury. In the chronic mTBI population, behavioral deficits are reported in a majority of participants (McInnes, Friesen, MacKenzie, Westwood, & Boe, 2017), accompanied by neural differences (Eierud et al, 2014;Ham et al, 2014;Pan et al, 2016;Sharp & Ham, 2011;Sharp, Scott, & Leech, 2014;Shenton et al, 2012;Tate, Shenton, & Bigler, 2012) detectible even years after an mTBI (Bajaj, Dailey, Rosso, Rauch, & Killgore, 2018;Dall'Acqua et al, 2017).…”

Impaired visual working memory and reduced connectivity in undergraduates with a history of mild traumatic brain injury

“…For consistency, we automated the process using Multiple Artifact Rejection Algorithm 94,95 . Subsequent analyses were done in Fieldtrip 96 separately in the delta (1-5 Hz), theta (5)(6)(7)(8), alpha (8)(9)(10)(11)(12), beta (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), and low gamma (30-80 Hz) bands [97][98][99] .…”

“…Certainly, in moderate and severe TBI cognitive impairment persists 9 – 11 . In acute mTBI (0–3 days post injury) impairments include deficits in processing speed 12 , 13 , attention 14 – 16 , and episodic memory 17 . However, the data on cognitive outcomes long after mTBI (> 3 months) are mixed.…”

Improved sensitivity of the rapid screen of mild traumatic brain injury

“…In other words, the injury was not a result of an abrupt stop to, or reversal of the direction of motion (motor vehicle accident, MVA; falls; selected sporting injuries; De Monte & Geffen, 2005), and instead generally resulted from being struck by an object or person, were a crush injury, or were sporting injuries of this nature.…”

“…Additionally, while most studies of the acute effects of hospital-treated mTBI include uninjured controls, only a handful have compared the cognitive performance of people with mTBI to a well-matched group of people with orthopedic injuries. While an uninjured control group gives an indication of the types of deficits likely to be seen following mTBI, it is not possible to determine whether any observed deficits are due specifically to mTBI, or are a results of the broad effects of injury in general, such as pain or occult TBI (Comerford, Geffen, May, Medland, & Geffen, 2002;De Monte & Geffen, 2005).…”