Skull Trauma Examination

Definition:

Skull trauma is an injury that affects the scalp, skull, and/or brain. It includes:

• Physical damage: skull fracture, brain contusion, hematoma

• Temporary physiological dysfunction of the brain: often seen after trauma, can recover after treatment

• Combined injuries: due to traffic accidents, labor, etc.

Principles of Skull Trauma Examination:

Doctors need to assess:

• Stimulus response: includes the patient’s reflex response to stimuli (such as speech, light, touch).

• Level of movement: assess the patient’s ability to move.

• Level of coma: assessed using the Glasgow Coma Scale, based on the patient’s response to speech, eyes, and movement.

• Lucid interval: the period of wakefulness between coma episodes.

• Signs of autonomic nervous system disorders: including signs such as slow pulse, increased blood pressure, increased breathing rate, increased respiration, headache, and vomiting.

• Hemiparesis: can be due to hematoma, brain contusion, combined injury, cerebral edema…

• Pupil dilation: can be due to direct or indirect mechanisms.

• Increased intracranial pressure syndrome: includes symptoms such as persistent headache, vomiting, papilledema.

Diagnostic methods:

• Plain skull X-rays: valuable in detecting signs of skull fractures, radiopaque foreign bodies in the skull, skull depression.

Note:

Skull trauma can lead to many dangerous complications. Therefore, it is necessary to bring the patient to a reputable medical facility for timely diagnosis and treatment.