CEREBRAL CONCUSSION. - A consequence of severe trauma directly or indirectly affecting the head, or of violent shaking of the nervous centres (explosions), coma (v.) of varying duration and reversible character. From the mildest cases, with transient loss of consciousness that is easily regained, one proceeds to the most serious, with shallow and slow breathing, a weak pulse at a rate of 60–40 beats per minute or even fewer, intense pallor, and death without recovery of consciousness.
If the effects of c. c. disappear, the patient may regain, more or less rapidly, full possession of every mental faculty; sometimes gaps remain, particularly in the field of memory (amnesias), especially concerning the event that occurred and the circumstances accompanying II. In severe forms, a slow and progressive mental weakening may subsequently develop, reaching the forms of traumatic dementia, or alterations of character may persist (irritability, ill-humour, neglect of interests, loss of affection for the family, etc.). Anatomopathologically, the symptom complex of c. c. is explained by microscopic haemorrhages infiltrating the lymphatic sheaths of the vessels (Mairet and Durante).
Giuseppe de Ninno