CEREBRAL INJURIES DUE TO EXPLOSION WAVES— "CEREBRAL BLAST CONCUSSION"

Abstract

THE CONDITION known generically in World War II as "blast concussion,"¹and discussed under synonymous titles by Fulton,²Pollock,³Fabing,⁴Aita and Kerman⁵and others, is presented here from the point of view of the organic basis of the syndrome. The first case to be described, which is one of the few of its type in which autopsy observations are on record, exemplifies the cardinal factors in this syndrome. These factors can be simplified as follows: One or more nearby explosions, causing no overt or external harm to the skull, nevertheless render the subject unconscious. After this, he has a retrograde amnesia for all but the flash of the explosion, and thereafter anterograde amnesia for a variable period. During this time he may have great motor unrest and normal or exaggerated responses to stimuli. On regaining consciousness, he has intense and intractable headache, which later