The nature and extent of symptoms after brain injury are getting more and more thorough treatment throughout peer reviewed literature. The interest that has occurred in Sport Concussion, particularly because of the NFL’s change in perspective, has been one part of that. The second part of that has been the money that has been budgeted from the Federal Government to research military head injury. Thus, the reliance of a few seminal sources when this page was created more than a decade ago, is now no longer the case.
From a historic standpoint, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicines’s definition of Mild Brain Injury, discussed at http://www.tbilaw.com/tbilibrary.loc.php is probably still the most significant. Of the contributions my writing has made in the field of MTBI, my discussion of fatigue and vestibular disorders are probably the most important.
A. Fatigue After Brain Injury.
Fatigue is perhaps the second biggest common denominator in terms of brain injury symptomotology, following only headache. But even in those cases where headaches lessened, fatigue continues to persist. Lezak’s Neuropsychological Assessment, has always been a leading academic source for better understanding of that issue. The best treatment was in the 5th edition, at page 183.
Wrightson and Gronwall, Mild Head Injury, Chapter 5 also give a thorough treatment of the insiduous nature of brain injury fatigue.
Balon, Malmagyi, Disorders of the Vestibular System, 1996.
One of the most underdiagnosed problems following brain injury are those which effect the vestibular system, consisting of inner ear, cranial nerves and brain stem. While there are better resources on line to understand trauma’s effect on the vestibular system, this text does a comprehensive job of detailing the normal and pathological issues involved.