When you get into a crash that involves head trauma, you may look for impact injuries first. These typically involve concussive damage such as bruises on the brain caused by it hitting the inside of the skull.
But what happens when the skull itself ends up fractured? This can cause its own set of problems and serious health issues on top of that. The long and short-term damages can impact your quality of life.
Signs of skull fractures
Merck Manual goes into detail about the potential impact of skull fractures. First, the soft tissue of the brain can face easy injury in the face of fractured bone. The fracture can result in loose pieces of skull cutting into the brain or getting lodged in places. This will often cause immediate neurological symptoms that can include:
- Paralysis of some or all limbs
- Full body paralysis
- Repeated vomiting
- Inability to maintain balance
- Inability to identify surroundings or people
Bleeding in the skull
Skull fractures can also cause bleeding in the head and blood may collect in the hollow spaces of the skull. Thus, you should look for bruising behind the ears and around the eyes. The ears may also bleed, which happens if blood builds up behind the eardrum, causing it to burst.
You may also notice the presence of clear fluid draining from the nose or ears. This is cerebrospinal fluid, which a skull fracture can also cause to leak from the cranium. This is another sign of serious damage and you will want to get the victim immediate medical attention if they suffer from this.