Concussions are a type of traumatic brain injury that can lead to serious physical, mental and emotional changes over time — yet they’re often underdiagnosed in emergency rooms. While some serious brain injuries can be seen on imaging tests, the subtle bruising, swelling and bleeding that can occur with a closed head injury can be relatively invisible.
Doctors have generally relied on subjective measurements of an individual’s ability to focus and respond accurately to a series of questions in the emergency room. That’s bad news because, without an accurate measure of that victim’s baseline abilities, the doctor may be making no more than an educated guess about someone’s condition.
Well, there is now a remarkable advancement in diagnostic methods that can help emergency room doctors make a better, more accurate diagnosis. The best part is that the test is inexpensive, easy to use and suitable for both children and adults. It doesn’t require much in the way of instructions, either, since it simply measures the patient’s involuntary eye movements while they watch a small moving picture or video.
Doctors have known since about 2012 that concussions tend to quickly interrupt the synchronicity between people’s eye movements. The question was how to provide an objective way to measure that disruption and a way to interpret the results. The EyeBOX, created by Oculogicia, solves the problem. It’s the first non-invasive baseline-free test for concussions ever approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Concussions are frequently a result of motor vehicle accidents, falls, sports injuries and assaults — and their long-term consequences can be significant for both victims and their families. If your loved one suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident, find out more about the potential for compensation.