Car Crashes Can Cause Permanent Brain Injury

Auto accidents can cause injuries to all parts of the body. Yet, the most significant injury usually results when the brain is traumatized as a result of the car crash impact. Symptoms of such head injuries include loss of vision, loss of cognitive ability, hearing loss, alteration of smell and taste, and endocrine/glandular dysfunction. Especially in cases of moderate and severe brain injury, patients should be routinely given blood tests to see if the human hormonal glands are functioning normally. The pituitary gland is particularly at risk, and blood work should be done to show whether or not the gland is functioning properly. If there is a decrease in the production of growth hormone, rather expensive hormone therapy may need to be implemented because of the long term ill effects of low pituitary output which may affect the heart, the psychiatric status of the patient, and may have other effects not fully know at this time. Many physicians feel that there needs to be observable damage to the small but powerful glands in the brain in order to consider testing for output. There does not have to be observable damage for such an injury to occur, if there otherwise was a moderate to severe brain injury involved in the patient. These glandular disruptions would be the cause of the very common sexual dysfunction seen in TBI survivors.