Metabolic Dysfunction Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

The major objective of this chapter is to provide insight on neurometabolic/ neurochemical cascade and pathophysiological processes underlying the brain responses to biomechanical concussive forces. Specifi cally, I will provide you with a brief, yet simple and straightforward notion of mild traumatic brain injury, also known as concussion. I would like to stress that concussion: (a) is an injury to the brain caused by biomechanical forces; it is not ischemia or stroke; (b) results in regional and temporal cellular alteration and may produce cell death; (c) produces a state of energy crisis and subsequent metabolic diaschisis ; (d) changes the priorities for fuel; and (e) can contribute to the acquisition of posttraumatic stress and more chronic neurological degeneration related to disease. Both animal models and human studies strongly suggest that there is nothing " mild " about mild TBI at the cellular level .