In emergency medicine, a lucid interval is a temporary improvement in a patient's condition after a traumatic brain injury, after which the condition deteriorates. A lucid interval is especially indicative of an epidural hematoma. An estimated 20 to 50% of patients with epidural hematoma experience such a lucid interval.[1][2]
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Indications [link]
The lucid interval occurs after the patient is knocked out by the initial concussive force of the trauma, then lapses into unconsciousness again after recovery when bleeding causes the hematoma to expand past the extent to which the body can compensate for.[3] After the injury, the patient is momentarily dazed or knocked out, and then becomes relatively lucid for a period of time which can last minutes or hours.[3] Thereafter there is rapid decline as the blood collects within the skull, causing a rise in intracranial pressure, which damages brain tissue. In addition, some patients may develop "pseudoaneurysms" after trauma which can eventually burst and bleed, a factor which might account for the delay in loss of consciousness.[4]
Because a patient may have a lucid interval, any significant head trauma is regarded as a medical emergency and receives emergency medical treatment even if the patient is conscious.
Delayed cerebral edema, a very serious and potentially fatal condition in which the brain swells dramatically, may follow a lucid interval that occurs after a minor head trauma.[5]
Lucid intervals may also occur in conditions other than traumatic brain injury, such as heat stroke[6] and the postictal phase after a seizure in epileptic patients.[7]
References [link]
- ^ Kushner D (1998). "Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Toward Understanding Manifestations and Treatment". Archives of Internal Medicine 158 (15): 1617–1624. DOI:10.1001/archinte.158.15.1617. PMID 9701095. https://archinte.highwire.org/cgi/content/full/158/15/1617.
- ^ Kushner DS (2001). "Concussion in Sports: Minimizing the Risk for Complications". American Family Physician 64 (6): 1007–14. PMID 11578022. https://www.aafp.org/afp/20010915/1007.html.
- ^ a b Valadka AB (2004). "Injury to the cranium". In Moore EJ, Feliciano DV, Mattox KL. Trauma. New York: McGraw-Hill, Medical Pub. Division. pp. 385–406. ISBN 0-07-137069-2. https://books.google.com/?id=VgizxQg-8QQC&pg=PA545&dq=tracheobronchial. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
- ^ Roski, RA; Owen M, White RJ, Takaoka Y, Bellon EM (1981). "Middle meningeal artery trauma". Surgical Neurology (Elsevier Science Inc) 17 (3): 200–203. DOI:10.1016/0090-3019(82)90280-4. PMID 7079938.
- ^ Kors, EE; Terwindt GM, Vermeulen FL, Fitzsimons RB, Jardine PE, Heywood P, Love S, van den Maagdenberg AM, Haan J, Frants RR, Ferrari MD (2001). "Delayed cerebral edema and fatal coma after minor head trauma: role of the CACNA1A calcium channel subunit gene and relationship with familial hemiplegic migraine". Annals of Neurology 49 (6): 753–760. DOI:10.1002/ana.1031. PMID 11409427.
- ^ Casa, DJ; Armstrong LE, Ganio MS, Yeargin SW (2005). "Exertional heat stroke in competitive athletes". Current Sports Medicine Reports 4 (6): 309–317. PMID 16282032.
- ^ Nishida, T; Kudo T, Nakamura F, Yoshimura M, Matsuda K, Yagi K (2005). "Postictal mania associated with frontal lobe epilepsy". Epilepsy and Behavior 6 (1): 102–110. DOI:10.1016/j.yebeh.2004.11.009. PMID 15652742.
See also [link]
External links [link]
- Medpix.com discussion of lucid interval. Retrieved on February 6, 2007.
https://wn.com/Lucid_interval
Lucid Interval
Lucid Interval is the third full-length album released by Cephalic Carnage. It was released in 2002 via Relapse Records. The album was reissued by Relapse Records with a bonus track on September 13, 2011.
Track listing
Personnel
Cephalic Carnage
Additional musicians
Podcasts:
-
by Cephalic Carnage
Lucid Interval
by: Cephalic CarnageYou are paranoid, with delusions of grandeur
Somehow things ain't right, there's an imbalance in your mind
Chain reflex is slow, anxiety neuroses set in.
Breaking out in sweat, was it something that I said?
Is your asthma flaring up? Why are you so pale?
Hands are livid from punching holes in the wall.
(Thinking someone is in your brain.)
You never take your medicine, that's you're always sick!
Looking so afraid, should I call your mom,
I'm talking to myself, answer me, stop shaking.
Waiting from the ambulance, to get your some help
The deranged look you have, you will cut yourself
Don't grab that knife!
Why are you amputating me?
I am your second personality!
Suicide is not the alternative!
If your trephinate I will not die, we can live together,
Conjoined at the cephalic. I command you to obey.
Don't try to kill me, I have my own life,
To separate, will be our demise!
Smoke some weed and relax!
You're going thru a great deal of stress.
Fetid breath reeks, go brush your teeth,
You should get clean, your hair is full of grease!
This is a song about a man, with an unnatural appendage at the skull.
When they have no weed they go insane, now they are stoned and get along.
A lucid interval will straighten this place out