Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition.Thomson, Alexis
Science
Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition.
Thomson, Alexis
Surgery
After a period, varying from a few minutes to several hours, he
rallies, the first evidence often being vomiting, which is usually
repeated. Sometimes reaction is ushered in by a mild epileptiform
seizure. He then turns on his side, the face becomes flushed, and
gradually the symptoms pass off and consciousness returns. The
temperature rises to 99° or 100° F., and in some cases remains
elevated for a few days. In most cases it falls again to 97° or 97.5°,
and remains persistently subnormal for one or two weeks. During
reaction the pulse becomes quick and bounding, but after a few hours
it again becomes slow, and usually remains abnormally slow (40 to 60)
for ten or fourteen days. There is sometimes a tendency to
constipation, and for the bladder to become distended, although he has
no difficulty in passing water. Very commonly the patient complains of
pain in the head for some days after the return of consciousness.
Children often sleep a great deal during the first few days, but
sometimes they are very fretful.
In cases complicated by gross brain lesions the symptoms of concussion
may imperceptibly merge into those of compression or there may be a
"lucid interval" of some hours duration.
_After-Effects of Concussion._--The majority of patients recover
completely. A number complain for a time of headache, languor,
muscular weakness, and incapacity for sustained effort--_traumatic
neurasthenia_. Sometimes there is a condition of mental instability,
the patient is easily excited, and is unduly affected by alcohol or
other stimulants. Occasionally there is permanent mental impairment.
It is not uncommon to find that the patient has entirely forgotten the
circumstances of the injury and of the events which immediately
preceded it. In some instances the memory is permanently impaired. On
the other hand, it has occurred that a patient, after concussion, has
recovered his memory of a foreign language long since forgotten.
As it is never possible to determine the precise extent of the damage
to the brain, the immediate prognosis, even in the mildest cases of
concussion, should always be guarded. If the patient has been actually
unconscious, the condition should be looked upon as a serious one, and
treated accordingly.
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