If you suffer from a brain injury, medications may or may not be used. Typically, rest is the best solution for a mild brain injury, and the only medications you use could be mild painkillers — to deal with a headache, for example.
For more serious issues, though, more potent medications could be needed, including the following:
- Anti-seizure drugs. Seizures can be very harmful and could even be deadly, especially if you have one while driving. For both severe and moderate injuries, the risk is elevated during the first seven days. These drugs can reduce that risk as the brain heals.
- Diuretics. A diuretic will dehydrate you, as it increase your urine output and also reduces the total fluid levels in your bodily tissues — including brain tissue. You can take diuretics orally or intravenously. These are given out when the injury is causing pressure to build up between the brain and the skull, which could cause further injuries to the brain.
- Coma-inducing drugs. In some cases, doctors will put you into a coma intentionally until swelling goes down. The brain doesn’t need as high of oxygen levels when you’re in a coma.
There are times when the pressure in the brain pushes on the blood vessels, constricting them so that they do not carry as much oxygen and the supply of nutrients to the brain is reduced. When this happens, the brain can sometimes still function and heal when you’re in a coma, and you can then be woken up after the healing process has progressed and doctors do not believe there are further risks.
If you had to use expensive medications after an injury in Arizona, you may want to know your rights to compensation.
