What are the consequences of a military concussion? Three groups of severity and consequences

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Concussion was not considered a particular trauma until the outbreak of World War II. For the first time, she was singled out as a separate category of wounds by Soviet military doctors. First of all, they took such a step due to the fact that the number of soldiers with this injury in the conditions of total war was constantly growing. So what really is a concussion and why is it really so scary for any person?

The word "contusion" comes from the Latin "contusio", which translated into Russian means just a bruise. Interestingly, until the outbreak of World War II, the term "shell shock" was actually not used in medicine. In any case, in the narrow sense in which this word is used by doctors now.

"Great Medical Encyclopedia"Alexandra Bakulieva tells us that "contusion" is a defeat of the whole human body by a powerful mechanical effect, which at one moment falls on many different surfaces of the body. Most often, a concussion overtakes a person during an explosion or a fall from a great height. Specifically, during the explosion, a person is injured by a powerful blow inflicted by gases heated to a high temperature and compressed to a huge density. The compressed layers of air in an effort to expand are moving at a supersonic speed, thereby provoking an abrupt increase in pressure, temperature and density of the atmosphere. In this case, behind the zone of strong compressed air, a zone of discharged air is immediately formed - with low pressure.

Any explosive injury has three degrees of damage to the human body. The primary lesion is injuries sustained directly from the shock wave. Secondary injury is injury from shrapnel and debris. Tertiary damage is injuries sustained as a result of a person falling. Within the framework of this classification, contusion refers precisely to the group of primary lesions of the body.

In most situations, having earned a concussion, a person immediately loses consciousness. In this state, the body can spend from several minutes to several days. Most often, concussion is accompanied by a blow to the brain, damage to the lungs, and also to the organs of hearing. The organs of the abdominal cavity are damaged somewhat less often. Even less often, kidneys and genitals are damaged. All this is accompanied by impaired hearing and speech. A person may also partially or completely lose sight.

The contusion is divided into three groups of severity: mild, moderate, and severe. Mild - accompanied by stuttering, disorientation, loss of balance, hearing loss and tremors. With an average concussion, the list of symptoms is supplemented by deafness (up to complete), incomplete paralysis of the limbs, respiratory failure, and lack of reaction of the pupil to light. Severe contusion is easily recognized by seizures, involuntary limb movements, convulsive breathing, and bleeding from the mouth, nose, and ears.

The described injury is dangerous not only at the moment of immediate receipt. Very often, its clinical manifestations do not fade away completely until the death of a person. Decrease or loss of hearing and vision, the appearance of dizziness, mental disorders, irritability, disruption of the body's work cycles, constant drowsiness - this is not a complete list of symptoms that may accompany people who have suffered a contusion.