Neurological Assessment Paper

What makes a Neurosurgeon? The money? The type of houses they get to live in? The places they get to go? The car they drive? Sure it could be all of those things. But what really makes a Neurosurgeon? Is it ambition? Is it courage? Is it the aspiration to save lives? Is it the reaction they get after a successful operation? Or is it a dream that they have dreamt of becoming a Neurosurgeon? Well, it's all of those things. I’ve dreamt of becoming a Neurosurgeon since I was in 6th grade. Ambition is one of my traits. I’ve always had the aspiration to help others, but to save lives that’s another level I want to achieve. The reaction I get when I do something great internally is something that I cannot explain. That’s a Neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeons are specialized physicians and their specialty is doing surgery on the Nervous System. Let’s look more in depth at becoming a Neurosurgeon.

The Glasgow coma scale is the scoring system that monitors and assesses the level of consciousness of a patient that has had a traumatic injury e.g. brain injury, car accident or sports injury (Braine & cook, 2016). The Glasgow coma scale is a score between 3-15 with 3 being the worst and 15 being the best. This scale is composed of 3 sections which are the best eye response this assessment is important to assess the arousal of the patient which reflexes the integrity of reticular activating system of the brain which assesses by 1. No eye opening 2. Opens to pain 3. Opens to voice 4. Opens spontaneously, the best verbal response this assessment reflects the integrity of higher cognitive and interpretive centres of the brain. The verbal response depends on the language centre in the temporal lobe and in the frontal lobe which assess 1. No verbal response 2. Incomprehensive sounds 3. Inappropriate words 4. Confused 5. Orientated and best motor response this assessment check the function ability of the cerebral cortex, the patient has to understand the commands and perform the movement accordingly, they assess the upper extremities by simple orders because they are more reliable than the lower extremities this is assessed by 1. No motor response 2. Extension to pain 3. Flexion to pain 4. Withdrawals from pain 5. Localising pain 6. Obeys commands, these are the three sections that nurses needs to access (Elliot, Aitken & Chaboyer,

Concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) represents the most common type of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Even though this type of TBI is called “mild”, the effect on the family and the injured person can be devastating. Concussions can be tricky to diagnose and there is no specific cure for concussion. There is growing recognition and some evidence that mild mechanical trauma resulting from sports injuries, military combat, and other physically engaging pursuits may have cumulative and chronic neurological consequences [3, 4]. However there is still a poor understanding of concussions and their effects. Studying mild brain injury in humans is challenging since it is restricted to cognitive assessment and brain imaging evaluation. Animal models provide a means to study concussions in a rigorous, controlled, and efficient manner with the hope of further diagnosis and treatment of mTBI.

According to biousa.org, “the term ‘mild brain injury’ can be misleading. The term ‘mild’ is used in reference to the severity of the initial physical trauma that caused the injury. It does not indicate the severity of the consequences of the injury.” On March 7th, 2015 I took a fall off of my horse and got a severe concussion. I could not look at a computer or a phone for a little over a month without feeling like I was going to vomit, I could not even get out of a chair without help for a good 2 weeks, and the symptoms were obviously there and very obvious that I was struggling with them. I was out of school freshman year for 3 months continuing through the summer and into sophomore year. My school did not want to accomodate for me with the

Did you know that there are about 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain (Neurologist 2011)? It is true, which is why neurosurgeons must take special care when operating procedures in this vital part of our body. Neurosurgeons, equally known as brain surgeons, specialize in the activities occurring in the brain and nervous system. Training to become a brain surgeon requires a 6-7 year neurosurgical residency following four years of medical school (citation). Brain surgeons primarily perform complex surgeries on the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. Becoming a brain surgeon result in significant benefits such as they heal problems in one of the most complex parts of the body, the brain, they help all

As per Reitan and Wolfson (1993) raw test scores must be interpreted by adhering to the following method: the WAIS-Information, Comprehension, Similarities and Vocabulary score must be weighed against pre-morbid intellectual competence. Poor scores are more receptive to biological condition and it might indicate brain damage. Next the Halstead Impairment Index is calculated based on the CT, Trail-Making Test B, and Localisation score of the TPT. In case these scores show significant decrease compared to Wechsler result, or the obtained ratio of 0.5 or greater suggests brain damage which resulted in neuropsychological impairment. This is followed by examining the WAIS Verbal versus Performance, bilateral disparity on the FTT and TPT, dysphasia, constructional dyspraxia and deficiency on the Sensory Perceptual Examination which lead to finding the location and orientation of the cerebral damage. Closing step is integrating all the input and interpreting the results concerning the neurological irregularity, predicting the progression of the injury and diagnosing the neurological condition (Reitan & Wolfson, 1993). Various index numbers serve to detect improper brain function. Russsell et al (1970) formulated Average Impairment Rating based on 12 weighted average subtest scores. The General Neuropsychological Deficit Scale (Reitan &

Neuropsychological testing is a series of tests and questionnaires for assessment of cognitive functions that cannot be fully administered following the injury since the test takes several days when the injured person requires cognitive rest. In the period of recovery, neurocognitive testing (along with symptom assessment, clinical evaluation, etc.) may help in the diagnosis and management of

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can result in many neural deficits which result in a lower social cognitive performance. Social cognition can be defined as “an umbrella term that comprises the ability to attend to, process, and interpret social information in order to guide both volitional and nonvolitional decision making and behavior” (Kelly, McDonald, & Kellett, 2014 p. 897). Because social cognition involves working memory, inhibition, and initiation, patients suffering from TBI are likely to have a reduced performance in one or more of these areas which results in reduced social cognition. Results of a 2014 study conducted by Kelly, McDonald & Kellett show that the experimental group suffering from TBI performed lower than the control group on a number of social cognitive tasks including the Social Decision Making Task (SDMT), Awareness of Social Inference

There are many neurological diseases and the way the “regular checkup” goes will be determined by the type of disease they have. For instance a patient with a nonfatal diagnosis of Multiple sclerosis can have a neurological checkup; the physician should recap the patients’ health history and determine what brought them in. Ask if anything has changed since the last checkup. Assess mental status, obtain vital signs and ask if patient is in pain or if they have a feeling of numbness or tingling anywhere.

Neurological manifestations of CVS do not significantly differ in between ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Due to the destruction of neural tissue, both types of stroke causes the basis for neurological manifestation (Lewis, et al. 2014).

When taking these tests, doctors look for the results of defining the size of the cerebral ventricles and showing a blockage [11]. Also, examining if the cerebellar tonsils are out of position, but since Chiari is always changing, doctors use symptoms and the results of the cerebral [12]. When checking the functions controlled by the cerebellum and spinal cord, doctors watch for balance, touch, reflexes, sensation and motor skills [13]. Since the symptoms deal with these topics/skills, looking for relation between both symptoms and possible problems/conditions.

Clinical neuropsychologists evaluate patients using one of three general methods. The first method is to use an assessment technique in which a fixed battery of tests is given and in which we only want to know what functions are impaired and what functions are not impaired. The most commonly used representative of this type of test is the Halstead - Reitan Neuropsychological Battery. The second method is to use an assessment technique in which a fixed battery of tests is given but in this method there is a hierarchical arrangement of items within each subtest so that if a function is impaired, the level at which it is impaired can be determined. The most common representative of this type of test is the Luria - Nebraska.

I would first enter the room wash my hand and introduce myself to the patient. Then I would verify the patient’s name and date of birth. I would explain that the neurological examination is for the assessment of the patient’s ability to respond to neurons and motor sensory. This would include the patient’s medical history review, age; drug history, family and social history; and physical examination to ensure that the patient’s reflex is responding correctly, but this would not include the deeper investigation such as neuroimaging unless some abnormality have been found.

Cranial nerve assessment is the technique of assessing twelve cranial nerve. This assessment helps to find out the normal cranial nerve functioning, any deviations, or abnormalities. It is important that we should have good knowledge and skill for caring the patient with neurological abnormalities or neurological disorder. Cranial nerve examination involves a number of steps. The nurse should know which nerve is tested next and what test must perform for that nerve. During these procedures, the teacher faces several difficulties, this process of demonstration may not be effective if the teacher is not resourceful, if there is no adequate supply of articles required, if the demonstration is not lively or due to time constraints, are the examples

TOS is a nonspecific label. When employing it, one should define the type of TOS as arterial TOS, venous TOS, or neurogenic TOS. Each type has different symptoms and physical findings by which the three types can easily be identified. Neurogenic TOS (NTOS) is by far the most common, comprising well over 90% of all TOS patients. Arterial TOS is the least common accounting for no more than 1%. Many patients are erroneously diagnosed as “vascular” TOS, a nonspecific misnomer, whereas they really have NTOS. The Adson Test of noting a radial pulse deficit in provocative positions has been shown to be of no clinical value and should not be relied upon to make the diagnosis of any of the three types. The test is normal in most patients with NTOS and