After a head trauma, a person in Massachusetts may develop a mass lesion in the brain. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, these brain injuries create pressure inside the skull. Most often, traumatic brain injuries are associated with lesions known as contusions and hematomas.
A contusion is a bruise, and brain tissue may sustain one just as any other portion of the body might. The bruise consists of blood that has leaked into the damaged area of the brain from broken capillaries, veins or arteries. Hematomas form when blood collects and coagulates between the inside of the skull and the brain’s protective covering. The clot could also form between that covering and the next layer. A lesion could also be due to a hemorrhage, which is bleeding located either along the surface of the brain or within the tissues.
One study in the Journal of Acute Disease reviewed cases of traumatic brain injury in 107 patients. Researchers discovered that in many patients, lesions continued to evolve for hours after the initial trauma. Within the first four hours after the accidents, immediate medical attention was provided, including a computed tomography scan, and acute head trauma identified and assessed.
Follow-up CT scans 12 hours after the first images were taken revealed lesion growth in 64 of the patients. Of these, more than 65 percent required surgery. Less than 30 percent of the 107 patients had no changes in lesion size, and 11 of the patients experienced reabsorption of the bleeding and resolution of the lesion. Neurologists concluded that whenever patients’ conditions do not improve after the initial CT scan, a second scan should be done 12 hours later.