Head Injury - Description

Head injuries can take many forms. These include skull fractures (broken bones in the skull), blood clots between the brain and the skull, and damage to the brain itself. Brain damage can occur even if the skull itself is undamaged. The brain may move around inside the skull with enough force to cause bruising and bleeding.

Most people have had some type of head injury at least once in their lives, but these events are usually not serious enough to require hospital care. However, about two million Americans experience serious head injuries every year. Up to 750,000 of these individuals require hospital treatment. Brain injuries are most likely to occur in males between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. The most common causes of these injuries are car and motorcycle accidents. About 70 percent of all accidental deaths are due to head injuries, as are most disabilities resulting from accidents.