[Current views on brain concussion].

Abstract

Modern views on brain concussion are reviewed by the authors who present also the evolution of the views on this problem in the last five decades. Owing to devising of an experimental model of light craniocerebral injuries the presence of structural changes in the central nervous system developing after concussion has been demonstrated. Using the modern diagnostic imaging techniques (SPECT) in clinical practice persistent disturbances of regional cerebral blood flow were found following such head injuries. The mechanism, which could explain the development of cerebral perfusion changes, could produce also axonal disorders, breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, atrophy of hippocampal neurons which lesions had been noted previously in experiments. The results of SPECT investigations put in doubt the presence of a "pure" functional brain damage following slight craniocerebral injury and provide evidence for the existence will aim at correlating of electrophysiological phenomena, vascular changes and biochemical disturbances with lesions leading to disorders of behaviour observed in the so called postconcussion syndromes.