The mildest form of closed head injuries is a concussion, in which there is brief loss of consciousness at the time of trauma, but no permanent effects. Depressed Skull Fractures. The outer skull may remain intact, but fragments of underlying bone are pushed down and can compress or lacerate the brain beneath. The degree of damage to the brain can vary greatly. The outer tissues are torn, the skull opened, and the brain tissue exposed.
Brain damage is likely.
The symptoms of a brain injury vary and are directly related to the location and severity of damage. Concussion may be followed by headache, dizziness, and amnesia about events immediately before and after the injury. More serious head injuries may cause speech difficulty, bleeding from the nose or ears, muscular weakness, paralysis, and long periods of altered awareness or coma. Serious injury may also cause convulsive seizures. In more than a third of cases, even those with mild head injury, victims suffer a collection of sometimes vague symptoms known as posttraumatic or postconcussive syndrome.