Lucid interval

Description

When related to haemorrhage, the lucid interval occurs after the patient is knocked out by the initial concussive force of the trauma and then temporarily recovers, before lapsing into unconsciousness again when bleeding causes the haematoma to expand past the extent for which the body can compensate. cite book |author= Valadka AB |chapter=Injury to the cranium |veditors=Moore EJ, Feliciano DV, Mattox KL |title=Trauma |publisher=McGraw-Hill, Medical Pub. Division |location=New York |year=2004 |pages= 385–406 |isbn=0-07-137069-2 | access-date= 2008-08-15 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VgizxQg-8QQC&q=tracheobronchial&pg=PA545 After the injury, the patient is momentarily dazed or knocked out, and then becomes relatively lucid for a period of time which can last minutes or hours. Thereafter there is rapid decline as the blood collects within the skull, causing a rise in intracranial pressure, which damages brain tissue. In addition, some patients may develop "pseudoaneurysms" after trauma which can eventually burst and bleed, a factor which might account for the delay in loss of consciousness.

Because a patient may have a lucid interval, any significant head trauma is regarded as a medical emergency and receives emergency medical treatment even if the patient is conscious.

Delayed cerebral edema, a very serious and potentially fatal condition in which the brain swells dramatically, may follow a lucid interval that occurs after a minor head trauma.

Lucid intervals may also occur in conditions other than traumatic brain injury, such as heat stroke and the postictal phase after a seizure in epileptic patients.

References

References

1. Kushner DS. (2001). "Concussion in Sports: Minimizing the Risk for Complications". American Family Physician.
2. Roski, RA. (1981). "Middle meningeal artery trauma". Elsevier Science Inc.
3. Kors, EE. (2001). "Delayed cerebral edema and fatal coma after minor head trauma: role of the CACNA1A calcium channel subunit gene and relationship with familial hemiplegic migraine". Annals of Neurology.
4. Casa, DJ. (2005). "Exertional heat stroke in competitive athletes". Current Sports Medicine Reports.
5. Nishida, T. (2005). "Postictal mania associated with frontal lobe epilepsy". Epilepsy & Behavior.