What is the hospital procedure for a concussion patient?

Question

For any doctors out there, I'm wondering what procedure is for treating a patient who has taken a fall and recieved a concussion. Do they go to the ER? Do they just lay in bed and "sleep it off", so to speak? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

First thing is to make sure there is no major fracture. Generally you KNOW if there is a major fracture. The skull will be sunken in at some point.

Primarily the Docs are worried about internal bleeding or clotting. If there is blood spilling into the the skull itself. This causes lethal pressure on the brain that has to be relieved to prevent perm damage and clotting which causes essentially a stroke.

# Moderate to severe head injury (requires immediate medical attention):

I've had several concussions in my lifetime. It takes months to fully heal up from one. If it is a child playing a competitive sport a concussion prob means the end of the season for them or should. A good knock on the head is different from a concussion. I've had lots of good knocks on the head. A day or two later it might be sore where I got hit but everything else is fine. With a concussion things will seem strange. Sensory inputs may feel blurred or like they are coming from far far away. Reactions and thought processes are much slower. For a few days they may seem lethargic. Strong headaches will come periodically. Vision may be not quite right. The worst is over in a few weeks but some mild symtoms will usually persist for a few months.

Watch for these signs. Especially the pupils, bleeding into eyes, ears noses, Severe headache. Obviously if thier have siezures you'll take them to the hospital. Unless the Docs see this or they are being overly cautious that's all they'll do. Send you home with a list like this and say come back if any of these symtoms happen.

* loss of consciousness
* blurred vision
* severe headache
* vomiting
* loss of short-term memory, such as difficulty remembering the events that lead right up to and through the traumatic event
* slurred speech
* difficult walking
* dizziness
* weakness in one side or area of the body
* sweating
* pale skin color
* seizures
* behavior changes including irritability
* blood or clear fluid draining from the ears or nose
* one pupil (dark area in the center of the eye) looks larger than the other eye
* deep cut or laceration in the scalp
* open wound in the head

If you get these symptoms get themt to the doc ASAP.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Hospital Procedure

Answer 4

First of all, a person with a concussion shouldn't sleep for at least 4-8 hours. After that, he/she should be monitored closely. You should go to the ER to make sure that you didn't do anything more than a concussion, and the ER doc will often use CT Scanning to rule out anything more dangerous - also, they won't put the person on anything more than Tylenol or Advil. People with concussions are not put on narcotic painkillers due to the fact that they shouldn't sleep for the first few hours.

R. Catalano Grinnell, NREMT - P

Answer 5

I'm not a doctor but my daughter has near knocked herself out enough times for me to know they just watch them and make sure there's nothing sinister going on in their brain. There's not really much they can do

Answer 6

The hospital will probably do xrays and have the nurse come in and do neuro checks every hour or so. Nothing else they can do.

Answer 7

DO NOT LET THEM SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a concusion is basicly the brusing of the head. you should wait lik 5 or 6 hours b4 you even think about leting them get sleep, and even after that u should monitare them.