How Eye Movements Can Tell Us If You’ve Had A Concussion
What is a Concussion?
A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a hit to the head. When that happens, the brain moves inside the head sometimes even hits the skull. Soon following a concussion, patients can experience a range of symptoms including but not limited to headaches, confusion, lack of coordination, memory loss, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, ringing in the ears, sleepiness, and excessive fatigue. Symptoms can arise months after the injury, but they can also be present right after. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your healthcare provider if you feel that you have had a concussion and are experiencing the symptoms.
How Are Eye Movements Related to a Concussion?
Research being done is showing that doctors can now detect abnormal eye movements in patients that have suffered a concussion. Scott A. Edmonds states, co-director of the Low Vision/Contact Lens Service at Wills Eye Institute, “The eye itself is not a significant part of concussions, but rather the coordination of the eyes,” he said in an interview with PCON. “Depending on the level of the concussion, four basic visual systems can be affected. In concussion patients, saccadic eye movement, a key eye movement for reading, is commonly impaired. Smooth pursuit or following an object, accommodation and convergence can also be affected.” What’s important to understand is that it’s not necessarily a lack of vision that arises from a concussion but instead what’s usually affected is how our eyes see. At NorCal Brain center, we emphasize the fact that everything in the body is related to the other. That means when our eyes aren’t working it can tell us about how our brain is functioning too. When we lack certain eye movements or are having troubles with certain ones, then essentially, we can tell what part of the brain has been injured or is not working optimally.
What Kind of Treatments are Available For Those Who Have Had a Concussion?
There are many different treatments that we offer here for patients who have suffered from a concussion. While most healthcare providers stick to prescription medication these can be problematic as they can mask the symptoms without finding the root cause of the problem. When this happens, your symptoms can disappear for a bit, but they are likely to come back. At NorCal Brain Center, there are many different therapies we try for patients to help the brain heal and return to its optimal function. There are brain-based therapies that are used to help patients slowly get their brain functioning to how it was before the injury. A hyperbaric oxygen chamber is also used to help patients with healing the part of their brain that’s been injured. A hyperbaric oxygen chamber can increase the amount of blood flow and nutrients to the areas of the brain that have been damaged. Also rehab for specific for the eyes can be assigned to you, depending on what movements of the eye the concussion has affected. There are numerous therapies and treatments that we give to patients that have struggled with a concussion, please feel free to call us with any questions you may have.
