Diffuse
Diffuse injuries, also called multifocal injuries, include brain injury due to hypoxia, meningitis, and damage to blood vessels. Unlike focal injuries, which are usually easy to detect using imaging, diffuse injuries may be difficult to detect and define; often, much of the damage is microscopic. Diffuse injuries can result from acceleration/deceleration injuries. Rotational forces are a common cause of diffuse injuries; these forces are common in diffuse injuries such as concussion and diffuse axonal injury. The term "diffuse" has been called a misnomer, since injury is often actually multifocal, with multiple locations of injury.
Diffuse injuries include the following:
- Diffuse axonal injury is widespread damage to the white matter of the brain that usually results from acceleration/deceleration types of injury.
- Ischemic brain injury resulting from an insufficient blood supply to the brain, is one of the leading causes of secondary brain damage after head trauma.
- Vascular injury usually causes death shortly after an injury. Although it is diffuse type of brain injury itself, diffuse vascular injury is generally more likely to be caused by focal than diffuse injury.
- Swelling, commonly seen after TBI, can lead to dangerous increases in intracranial pressure. Though swelling itself is a diffuse type of injury, it can result from either focal or diffuse injury.
Read more about this topic: Focal And Diffuse Brain Injury
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