Diagnosis and Information
Listed below are the diagnoses that you are likely to have heard and a brief description of each:
Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
Damage to the brain resulting from trauma e.g road traffic incidents, falls, assault.
Acquired brain injury (ABI)
Damage to the brain resulting from a non-traumatic cause e.g tumour, haemorrhage, anoxia.
Stroke or Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA)
A stroke is caused by impaired oxygen delivery to a localised area of the brain due to inadequate blood flow. It may be due to a blockage in the blood vessels resulting in a lack of blood to the brain (ischaemic) or bleeding from a blood vessel (haemorrhagic).
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune disorder affecting movement, sensation, and bodily functions. It is caused by destruction of the myelin insulation covering nerve fibres (neurons) in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).
Spinal cord injury (SCI)
Damage to the spinal cord that causes loss of sensation and motor control. This may be as a result of trauma e.g a fall, or non-traumatic e.g transverse myelitis, cord compression or a tumour.
Sub arachnoid haemorrhage (SAH)
A bleed in the part of the brain known as the sub-archnoid space, usually as a result of the bursting of an aneurysm (cerebral aneurysm). An aneurysm is caused by microscopic damage to artery walls, infections of the artery walls, or arteriovenous malformation (a congenital disorder of blood vessels in the brain).
Guillain-Barré
An acute inflammatory autoimmune neuritis with de-myelination of the peripheral nerves and nerve roots. It is characterized by progressive symmetrical paralysis, loss of sensation and loss of reflexes, usually beginning in the legs.
