I am a mechanical engineer studying brain injury mechanisms. There is enough evidence in literature that thoracic pressure surge due to impact of blast wave in the abdomen or lungs results in brain trauma as a compression wave is transmitted to the brain. I want to know is there is a possibility of brain trauma due to thoracic pressure surge due to non-ballistic injuries in the thorax for e.g. sports injuries or accidents?
Tt impedes the venous drainge thereby increasing the intravascular hydrostatic pressure promoting brain odema.It possibly also helps to increase the cisternal pressure gradient thereby promoting the flow of CSF into the brain parenchyma via the virchow robin spaces .This causes raised intrabrain pressure.
This is a great question - many of the blast-related Post Concussion soldiers had severe headaches that were often called "migraine" but without the usual developmental history, the typical hemicranial pain distribution and genetic background. They did respond to triptans and other migraine treatments, with many of the co-occurring vascular headache symptoms, photophobia for example. I have thought that these cases had blast-induced vascular surge in the brain, leading to the migraine-like symptoms from the vascular damage...
- Badges
- Science topic