Traumatic Brain Injury and Seizures

A very common problem after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in an individual are seizures. Seizures are defined as uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain. Not all people who receive TBIs will receive a seizure, in fact, most people who have a TBI won’t have a resulting seizure at all. According to MSKTC only 1 in 10 people who are hospitalized for a TBI will receive a resulting seizure.
Still this has been a problem that has been continually brought to surface headlines for a variety of reasons. One main reason is the connection between seizures and concussions. With sports becoming more dangerous than they have ever been, concussions have been a hot topic in all contact sports. People are bigger, faster, and stronger than they have ever been and with better technology and knowledge of concussions we are figuring out just how dangerous concussions can be.
Hockey has made “concussion helmets” which are supposed to help prevent concussions. Football is looking at replacing the hard outer shell helmets with a soft shell. But with all these attempts to make sports safer, few effective changes have been made.
A majority of hockey helmets worn by the NHL, college and into high school and youth are considered unsafe. An independent study done by Virginia Tech ranked hockey helmets on a 5 star scale and all the helmets except one received a two star ranking or lower.
Football is also making headlines every week for the number of concussions being recorded. There have been ideas thrown around that maybe football will change to these softer helmets to help cushion the blows and also protect the other players from individuals using the helmets as a weapon. There have been ideas that maybe the players should play without helmets to teach people how to hit properly while protecting their heads.
Sports are changing game play to help prevent further TBIs from effecting people later in life. Seizures and TBIs are not entirely common, but when they do happen, it drastically increases the chance of receiving another later in life.
 
When a person receives a seizure within a week of a TBI such as a concession, it is called an early post-traumatic seizure. When this occurs a person has a 25% chance of receiving another seizure sometime in life. When the seizure occurs later than a week after a TBI, it is called a late post-traumatic seizure. If this is the case, the individual has an 80% chance of receiving a seizure later in life as a result.
Although it is not totally understood, early seizures are thought to occur because the force of the injury stimulates brain tissue that has a low threshold for seizures when stimulated.Late seizures are thought to be an occurrence as a result of damage to the cerebral cortex. The neuronal rewiring after the injury wires in a way that is more susceptible to further excitation resulting in excitotoxicity, and further seizures.
Seizures after TBIs are very underestimated. People don’t realize how dangerous TBIs can be. I’ve personally heard people brag about all the concussions they have received throughout their sports career and the stories that are attributed to them. Brain injuries are not like a broken arm that will fully heal in a few months. The damage can permanently affect your very personality. It can lead to a variety of horrible conditions and diseases and even early death.
Seizures are just one very dangerous result of TBIs, and education on the topic can help improve your health and others around you.
Image citations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussion
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/sabres-patrick-kaleta-suspended-5-games-by-nhl-1.1312315
http://qualitychoicedispensary.com/2015/10/27/epilepsy-how-cannabis-can-help/