Blasts May Cause Brain Injury Even Without Symptoms

According to research from Duke Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans exposed to explosions who do not report symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) may still have damage to their brain’s white matter, comparable to those with TBI. The findings, published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, suggest that a lack of clear TBI symptoms following an explosion may not accurately reflect the extent of the brain injury. Similar to sports injuries, if individuals don’t exhibit clear symptoms — such as losing consciousness, blurred vision, or headaches — they assume that they haven’t suffered an injury to the brain. However, evidence is building, particularly revolving around professional athletes, that sub-concussive events also have an effect on the brain. After evaluating 45 veterans who were split into three groups consisting of various blast-exposure levels, results showed that the groups of veterans who were near an explosion (regardless of whether they had TBI symptoms), showed a significant amount of injury compared to the veterans not exposed to a blast. The findings suggest that clinicians treating veterans should take into consideration a person’s exposure to explosive forces, even among those who do not show initial symptoms of TBI. To read more about this study, click here.