The following symptoms and complaints may indicate a traumatic brain injury (TBI):
Grade 1
- Short-lasting loss of consciousness
- Subsequent drowsiness and deceleration
- Confusion (also instead of unconsciousness).
- Amnesia (memory lapse)
- Cephalgia (headache)
- Vertigo (dizziness)
- Seizure
- Visual disturbances such as diplopia (double vision, double images).
- Hearing loss (hypacusis)
- Nausea (nausea), vomiting
- Disturbances of heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, temperature regulation.
- Swelling, bleeding on the skull
Grade 2
- Unconsciousness > 15 min
- Neurological disturbances such as reflex changes, pupillary changes, paresis (paralysis).
- Symptoms otherwise correspond to TBI grade 1
Grade 3
- Unconsciousness primary days/weeks
- Symptoms otherwise correspond to grade 1 and 2
Risk reduction of TBI with respect to intracranial injury.
| Indirect signs of severity | Loss of consciousness initial |
| Amnesia (loss of memory) about the accident event | |
| Headache | |
| Recurrent vomiting | |
| Neurovegetative signs, e.g., pallor, lethargy, cyanosis |
|
| Direct signs of severity | Calvaria fracture (fracture of the skull roof; clinical) |
| Impression fracture (indentation fracture) | |
| Galea hematoma (accumulation of blood (hematoma) under the planar tendon plate of the skull (galea aponeurotica)). | |
| Monocular or spectacle hematoma (annular bruising around one eye or both eyes) | |
| Rhinorrhea (watery or bloody runny nose)/otoliquorrhea (cerebrospinal fluid discharge (CSF) from the ear) | |
| Focal neurologic deficit (localized change in the brain that results in a very specific dysfunction in a different part of the body) |