Important elements in brain injury recovery

As we have noted in prior posts, different brain injuries require different types of treatments. Depending on the severity of the injury, the treatment could be as basic as monitoring the patient to make sure nothing out of the ordinary occurs during the healing process, or it could be as detailed as scheduling surgery and then organizing a plan of recovery.

Either way, patients want to know what their prognosis is, what they need to do in order to follow it. Nevertheless, the recovery plan for a traumatic brain injury may differ depending on the person and the nature of the injury. Physicians commonly use several indicators to determine how the recovery process will go. This post will highlight some of them.

Duration of a coma (if any) – Generally speaking, the shorter the coma (especially if it is medically induced) the better the chances are of recovery.

Post traumatic amnesia – It is common for those who suffer traumatic brain injury to lose command of some memories; especially those memories right before an accident. The less severe the amnesia, chances are that a recovery may be easy.

Age of the patient – The older the patient, especially if he or she is over 60, the more likely that a recovery may be especially promising. The same disposition follows for children under the age of two.

When treating brain injury patients, it is important that the attending physician be able to recognize the type of brain injury and be able to determine a prognosis. If this is a problem because the doctor fails to use reasonable care, this could lead to a medical malpractice case.