There are two main categories of brain injury:

• Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). An ABI is any brain injury that occurs since birth. These can be caused by illnesses such as strokes, haemorrhage, infection, hypoxic/anoxic injury or medical accidents.


• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - Receiving a severe blow or jolt to the head, possibly in a car accident, fall or assault, can cause a brain injury. This is called TBI.

The majority of TBI cases result from road traffic accidents. A smaller proportion are due to domestic or industrial accidents, sporting or other incidents.

Although initially caused by a sudden force, a traumatic brain injury also includes any subsequent complications. There are three distinct phases that may occur.

• The first injury – the initial traumatic event, caused by a sudden force or impact and lasting only a few seconds. These can be crush injuries, open wounds or closed injuries in which external forces can cause the brain to be twisted or torn without any outside sign of injury.


• A second injury can happen during the minutes and hours following the first injury. Problems such as serious blood loss or a blocked airway can reduce the amount of oxygen reaching the brain, and result in oxygen starvation.


• A third injury can happen at any subsequent time, causing further complications. This could be as a result of bleeding, bruising or swelling in the brain or because blood clots have developed.

More people survive severe brain injuries nowadays because of advances in medical knowledge and surgical techniques. Those who have survived a brain injury usually have a normal life expectancy. An ever-increasing number of people are living with the long-term effects of brain injury.  Estimates suggest that there are over 500,000 people living with disabilities as the result of head injury in the UK.