Speech and language
This chapter focuses on the impairments to speech and language that occur after brain injury. These impairments can be grouped into four main categories: • Aphasia • Dysarthria • Apraxia…
Dysphagia and aspiration
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can lead to problems with cognition, behavior, and physical functions, with each domain playing a crucial role in swallowing. Normal control of swallowing requires appropriate…
Critical care management in traumatic brain injury
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about 150 individuals die of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) daily in the United States. Advancements in medical and surgical…
Pressure injuries, bed rest, and deconditioning
Pressure injuries (PIs) and deconditioning are complications of bed rest, which can occur after brain injury. These complications increase morbidity and mortality and have a negative impact on functional outcome…
Motor control
Motor control Motor control—the process by which the central nervous system produces purposeful, coordinated movements of the body—can be disrupted in a variety of ways by acquired brain injury: •…
Posttraumatic seizure and epilepsy
Posttraumatic seizure (PTS) and posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE) are potential complications of traumatic brain injury (TBI). PTS is defined as a single seizure resulting from head trauma in exclusion of other…
Cranial nerve disorders
Twelve pairs of cranial nerves (CNs) emerge from the brain and radiate from its surface. CN injuries occur before, during, or after passing through the skull from compression secondary to…
Spasticity and contractures
Overview Definition Spasticity is a motor disorder characterized by a velocity-dependent increase in tonic stretch reflex (muscle tone) to passive muscle stretch. Pathophysiology • Motor dysfunction secondary to lesions proximal…
Paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity
Autonomic pathophysiology The autonomic nervous system (ANS) unconsciously controls critical body functions and coordinates our responses to stimuli. The two main branches of the ANS are the sympathetic system, which…
Post-traumatic hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus is “an active distention of the ventricular system of the brain related to inadequate passage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from its point of production within the ventricular system to…
