Traumatic Brain Injury in Older Adults: Why Blood Thinners and Balance Change the Care Plan

The rug had been there for thirty years. Then one morning it folded under a slipper, and a 79-year-old woman went down on the kitchen tile, catching the edge of the counter with her temple on the way. She sat up, rubbed the spot, and told her daughter she was fine. No cut, no blackout, just a sore head and a bruised knee.

What the daughter kept turning over was the small tablet her mother took each evening for an irregular heartbeat. Was a trip to the emergency department really necessary for a bump? That question sits at the heart of how traumatic brain injury in older adults is handled, and the answer clinicians give is different from the one they would give a 30-year-old.

This explainer walks through why. It covers what happens inside an aging skull after a fall, why blood thinners change the first hours, why balance problems change the months that follow, and what the care team is weighing when they talk about scans, observation and medicines.

Why traumatic brain injury in older adults is a different kind of emergency

A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is any disruption of normal brain function caused by a blow, jolt or penetrating injury to the head. In younger people the classic story is a car crash or a sports collision. In later life the story is almost always shorter: a step missed, a bathroom floor, a moment of dizziness getting out of bed.

The numbers bear this out. According to the CDC, falls lead to nearly half of all TBI-related hospitalizations in the United States, and people aged 75 and older have the highest rates of both TBI-related hospitalization and TBI-related death of any age group. The mechanism is low-energy, but the consequences are not.

Three things stack the odds. First, the brain loses volume with age. That shrinkage, called cerebral atrophy, means the organ sits a little looser inside the skull, so it moves further when the head stops suddenly. Second, the small veins that bridge the gap between the brain surface and its outer covering are stretched taut by that same shrinkage, and a stretched vein tears more easily. Third, a large share of older adults take medicines that slow clotting, so a torn vein that would seal itself in a younger person may keep oozing.

There is a quieter fourth factor: reserve. An 80-year-old brain has less capacity to absorb an insult without symptoms, and recovery draws on physical stamina, sleep quality and social support that may already be thin. None of this means an older person cannot recover well. It means the threshold for taking a head injury seriously drops sharply with each decade, and the care plan is built around that lower threshold.

What actually happens inside the skull after a fall

The skull is rigid; the brain is soft and floats in a thin layer of fluid. When a head strikes a hard surface, the skull stops instantly, but the brain keeps moving for a fraction of a second, striking the inside of the bone on the side of impact and then rebounding toward the opposite side. Clinicians call these coup and contrecoup injuries, meaning bruising at the point of impact and at the far side.

Several kinds of damage can follow, and they matter differently at different ages. A concussion is a functional disturbance of the brain without visible bleeding on a scan; it produces symptoms through a temporary chemical and electrical disruption of nerve cells. A contusion is a bruise within the brain tissue itself. An epidural hematoma is bleeding between the skull and the brain’s tough outer membrane, usually from an artery, and it tends to declare itself fast. A subdural hematoma is bleeding beneath that membrane, on the surface of the brain, usually from those fragile bridging veins.

In older adults the subdural bleed is the one that shapes the care plan. Because atrophy has opened up extra space around the brain, blood can pool there for hours, days or even weeks before it presses hard enough to cause symptoms. The Mayo Clinic notes that signs of a TBI can appear immediately or days to weeks after the injury, and that delay is longest when there is room for blood to collect.

Pressure is the enemy. The skull cannot expand, so any added volume, whether blood or swelling, squeezes brain tissue and can reduce blood flow to it. That is why teams watch for change over time, not just for what is present in the first hour.

Head injury in the elderly on blood thinners: why the first hours matter

Blood thinner is an everyday phrase covering two different drug classes. Anticoagulants, such as warfarin and the newer direct oral anticoagulants, slow the chemical cascade that forms a clot; they are commonly prescribed for atrial fibrillation, artificial heart valves and previous blood clots. Antiplatelet medicines, such as aspirin and clopidogrel, make the small cell fragments called platelets less sticky; they are commonly used after heart attacks, stents and strokes.

Both classes do their job by making the body slower to plug a leak. That is precisely the problem after a head injury. A torn bridging vein in a person with normal clotting may seal within minutes. In a person whose clotting is deliberately blunted, the same tear can bleed slowly for far longer, and the symptoms may not show until the collection is large.

This is why the NHS advises that anyone taking a blood-thinning medicine who has had a head injury should attend an emergency department, even if they feel well and even if the knock seemed trivial. In practice, most guidance treats anticoagulant use as a stand-alone reason for a CT scan of the head, without waiting for symptoms to develop.

What happens next depends on what the scan shows. If there is bleeding, the team may consider reversing the medicine’s effect. For warfarin that typically involves vitamin K together with concentrated clotting factors; for some direct oral anticoagulants, specific reversal agents exist. These are hospital decisions made by weighing the bleed against the reason the medicine was prescribed in the first place, because reversing an anticoagulant in someone with a mechanical heart valve carries its own serious risk.

One point deserves plain language: no one should stop or skip a prescribed blood thinner on their own after a fall. The safe step is urgent assessment, with the prescribing team deciding what changes, if any, are needed.

Subdural hematoma after a fall in the elderly: the bleed that hides for weeks

A subdural hematoma is a collection of blood between the brain’s surface and the dura, the tough membrane lining the inside of the skull. Doctors describe it as acute when it forms within hours and chronic when it accumulates slowly. Chronic subdural hematomas are overwhelmingly a condition of later life, and the fall that caused one is often so minor that the person has forgotten it by the time symptoms arrive.

The NHS describes chronic subdural hematomas developing over days or weeks, and the Cleveland Clinic notes that older adults and people taking anticoagulants are at particularly high risk. The reason is the anatomy already described: shrinkage stretches the bridging veins and creates a reservoir where blood can gather without immediate pressure.

Because the onset is slow, the picture can look like something else entirely. A gradual increase in confusion, a new unsteadiness, a headache that will not settle, sleepiness during the day, or weakness on one side may be attributed to aging, a urinary infection or an early dementia. Families sometimes describe a relative who “just wasn’t themselves” for two or three weeks before anyone connected it to a stumble in the garden.

Treatment depends on size, symptoms and the person’s overall health. Small collections without pressure symptoms may be watched with repeat scans, since some resorb on their own. Larger or symptomatic ones may need surgical drainage, most often through one or two small holes drilled in the skull, called burr holes, or occasionally through a larger opening called a craniotomy. Chronic subdurals can re-accumulate after drainage, so follow-up imaging is common.

Whether to operate, when, and what to do about blood thinners in the meantime are decisions for the neurosurgical and medical teams together, tailored to the individual.

Concussion, contusion or subdural bleed: how head injuries compare

Patients and families often hear several of these words in a single conversation, and the differences are not obvious. The table below lays out the main injury types seen after falls in later life, what they are, how quickly they tend to show themselves, and why age and blood-thinning medicines change the picture. Timelines are typical ranges drawn from the NHS and Mayo Clinic resources listed at the end, not predictions for any individual.

Injury	What it is	Typical timeline	Why age and blood thinners matter
Concussion	Functional disturbance of brain activity without visible bleeding on a scan	Symptoms usually start at once; the NHS notes mild symptoms may last up to 2 weeks	Older adults often take longer to recover and are more prone to dizziness and confusion
Contusion	Bruising within the brain tissue itself	Present immediately, may enlarge over the first 1–2 days	Impaired clotting can allow a bruise to expand
Epidural hematoma	Bleeding between skull and dura, usually arterial	Often rapid, within hours	Less common in older adults because the dura adheres more tightly to the skull
Acute subdural hematoma	Venous bleeding on the brain surface forming within hours	Hours to about 3 days	Stretched bridging veins and slowed clotting make it more likely and larger
Chronic subdural hematoma	Slow venous collection on the brain surface	Days to weeks after a minor or forgotten fall (NHS)	Cerebral atrophy provides space for blood to gather silently; anticoagulants raise risk

Two patterns are worth holding onto. The dangerous bleeds in older adults are usually venous and slow, not arterial and fast. And a normal first scan is reassuring but not a guarantee, which is why discharge advice always includes a list of changes to watch for over the following days.

Who is usually scanned right away, and who is usually asked to wait

Emergency teams do not scan every head. Radiation exposure, resource use and the risk of chasing incidental findings all argue for judgment. But the criteria that trigger a CT scan are deliberately weighted toward older adults, and several apply regardless of how the person feels.

A CT scan is a rapid X-ray-based image that shows fresh blood clearly. Mainstream guidance, including the NHS, treats the following as reasons to image promptly: any use of anticoagulant medicine; loss of consciousness or memory gap around the event in someone aged 65 or older; more than one episode of vomiting; a seizure after the injury; new weakness, numbness or speech difficulty; a reduced level of alertness on assessment; signs of a skull fracture such as clear fluid from the nose or ear; or a fall from a height or down stairs. Clinicians also use the Glasgow Coma Scale, a standardized score of eye opening, speech and movement, to track alertness over time.

Those who are usually asked to wait are the minority in this age group: a person under no blood-thinning treatment, fully alert, with no vomiting, no memory gap and no worrying signs on examination. Even then, the wait is active observation rather than dismissal, with the person watched for several hours and given written advice.

Going home carries conditions. The NHS advises that someone discharged after a head injury should have a responsible adult with them for the first 24 hours, should not be left alone, and should return if new or worsening symptoms appear. For a person who lives alone, that requirement alone can tip the decision toward an overnight stay.

None of these criteria replace clinical judgment. A clinician who feels uneasy about an older patient will often image regardless of the checklist, and that instinct is supported by the low-energy, slow-bleed pattern described earlier.

How balance problems raise the risk of the next brain injury

The CDC reports that more than one in four adults aged 65 and older falls each year, and that falls account for roughly three million emergency department visits annually in this age group. A brain injury is often the most serious result of a fall, but the fall itself is the disease to treat, because the person who has fallen once is more likely to fall again.

Balance is not a single system. It is a running calculation that blends signals from the inner ear, the eyes and the sensors in muscles and joints that report body position, a sense called proprioception. Each of those inputs weakens with age. Cataracts and reduced contrast sensitivity make step edges disappear. The inner ear’s balance organs lose hair cells. Nerve endings in the feet report less faithfully, especially in people with diabetes.

Muscle matters too. Age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, known as sarcopenia, reduces the power available to recover from a stumble. Many falls are not a loss of balance so much as a failure to catch it.

Then there is blood pressure. Orthostatic hypotension is a drop in blood pressure on standing that can cause light-headedness or a brief blackout; it is common in older adults and is worsened by dehydration and by some blood pressure and prostate medicines. Sedatives, sleep aids and certain antidepressants slow reaction time and add to the risk.

A head injury tightens this loop. Concussion itself causes dizziness and slowed processing, so the weeks after a TBI are a period of heightened fall risk. That is why a good care plan for an older adult with a brain injury spends as much time on gait, vision and medicines as it does on the scan.

Restarting blood thinners after a head injury: how the decision is weighed

Once bleeding has been found or ruled out and the immediate danger has passed, a harder question arrives: when, and whether, to resume the anticoagulant or antiplatelet medicine. Patients often expect a rule. There is not one, and it helps to understand why.

The medicine was prescribed because the person faced a real risk without it. Atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, allows clots to form in the heart and travel to the brain, causing stroke. A mechanical heart valve can clot within days without anticoagulation. A recent blood clot in the leg or lung can extend or recur. Stopping the medicine does not remove risk; it swaps a bleeding risk for a clotting risk.

On the other side sits the injured brain. Restarting too soon after a subdural or contusion may allow the bleed to expand or recur. The evidence guiding this balance is mostly observational, meaning it comes from following groups of patients rather than from randomized trials, and mainstream guidance acknowledges the uncertainty rather than hiding it.

In practice, teams weigh the size and stability of any bleed on repeat imaging, the strength of the reason for anticoagulation, whether surgery was performed, and the person’s fall risk going forward. The interval before resuming commonly ranges from days for a small stable finding to several weeks after a large or surgically treated bleed, but that range is descriptive, not a schedule anyone should apply to themselves. Where the underlying risk is very high, a temporary injectable anticoagulant may be used as a bridge; where a chronic subdural keeps recurring, the team may revisit whether the medicine remains the right choice at all.

The decision belongs to the prescribing clinicians, ideally with neurosurgery, cardiology and the patient in the same conversation. Ask to be part of it.

Concussion recovery time in older adults: what the first days and weeks usually look like

For a mild TBI with a clear scan, the first 48 hours are about rest and watching. Headache, nausea, tiredness, poor concentration and irritability are expected. The NHS notes that mild symptoms such as headache, feeling sick and dizziness commonly persist for up to two weeks after a head injury, and advises seeing a doctor if they last longer. In older adults, clinicians tend to expect the slower end of that range, and sometimes beyond it.

Sleep is allowed and helpful. The old instruction to wake someone every hour has been replaced by a simpler one: let them sleep, but check that they can be roused normally and are not becoming harder to wake. Alcohol, which both impairs judgment and increases bleeding tendency, is best avoided while symptoms persist. Screens, reading and noise can worsen headaches early on, so a gradual return to normal activity works better than pushing through.

If the injury required admission, a common complication is delirium, a sudden state of confusion, inattention and sometimes agitation or drowsiness that develops over hours. Older adults with a brain injury are especially vulnerable, and it can be mistaken for dementia or for worsening of the bleed itself. Familiar faces, glasses and hearing aids within reach, daylight, mobility and a regular sleep-wake pattern all help.

By the second and third weeks, most people with a mild injury are moving toward their baseline, though fatigue and slowed thinking often lag behind physical recovery. Driving, managing medicines and living alone are usually reviewed before being resumed, because a person who feels well may still have slower reactions than before.

A follow-up appointment is the checkpoint. It is where lingering symptoms, medicine questions and fall risk should all be raised.

Rehabilitation and the longer road: memory, mood and mobility

A moderate or severe TBI, or a subdural that needed surgery, is rarely followed by a straight line home. Rehabilitation for older adults draws on the same disciplines used at any age, but the emphasis shifts toward preventing the next fall and protecting independence.

Physical therapy rebuilds strength and, critically, retrains balance. Vestibular rehabilitation is a specific set of exercises that help the brain recalibrate the inner-ear signals disrupted by injury, and it is often what finally settles persistent dizziness. Occupational therapy focuses on tasks: getting in and out of a bath, managing medicines, cooking safely. Speech and language therapy addresses not only speech but swallowing, which can be affected after a brain injury and matters for pneumonia risk.

Cognitive change deserves honest discussion. Memory, attention and speed of thinking may take months to improve, and the NIH’s neurological institute notes that some people are left with lasting changes after moderate or severe injury. Where a person already had mild cognitive impairment, a TBI can unmask or accelerate it. Families sometimes notice this before the person does.

Mood follows closely. Depression and anxiety are common after brain injury and are often under-recognized in older adults, where low mood may be read as “understandable” rather than treatable. Sleep disturbance, social withdrawal and loss of confidence in walking outdoors all feed each other. Caregivers carry a load of their own and benefit from being asked about it directly.

Driving is usually paused and then formally reassessed rather than resumed on feel. The same goes for living alone. These conversations are hard, and they go better when the rehabilitation team, the patient and the family set expectations together early rather than confronting them at discharge.

Falls and brain injury in seniors: preventing the second fall

Every clinician who treats an older adult with a TBI is, in effect, treating two conditions: the injury in front of them and the fall that has not happened yet. The evidence for prevention is stronger than most people assume, and the CDC’s guidance for older adults rests on a handful of interventions that work together.

Exercise comes first. Programs that build leg strength and challenge balance, including tai chi and structured balance training, reduce falls in community-dwelling older adults. The effect depends on doing them regularly for months, not weeks. A physical therapist can tailor a program to someone who has just had a head injury and may be frightened of moving.

A medicine review comes a close second. Sedatives, sleep aids, some antidepressants, medicines that lower blood pressure too far on standing, and combinations of several drugs all raise fall risk. Reviewing them is a task for the prescriber; the patient’s job is to bring an up-to-date list, including over-the-counter products and supplements.

Vision and hearing follow. An eye examination and updated glasses, cataract assessment where relevant, and hearing correction all improve the inputs the balance system relies on. Multifocal lenses can blur the ground while walking, so some people are advised to use single-vision distance glasses outdoors.

The home is the last piece. Loose rugs, poor lighting on stairs, no grab bars near the toilet or shower, clutter on the floor, and footwear with slippery soles or open backs are the usual culprits. None of these fixes is dramatic. Together they change the odds, and for someone taking a blood thinner, changing the odds of the next fall is the single most protective step available.

What people often get wrong about traumatic brain injury in older adults

Misconceptions about head injuries are common at every age, but several are specifically dangerous in later life because they delay the visit that matters.

“They didn’t black out, so it can’t be serious.” Loss of consciousness is neither necessary nor sufficient. Most chronic subdural hematomas follow injuries with no blackout at all.

“There’s no bump or bruise.” The scalp and the brain are different structures. A significant internal bleed can sit beneath unmarked skin, and a large scalp swelling can overlie an entirely normal brain.

“Keep them awake all night.” Sleep is not the hazard; unrousable sleep is. Current advice is to let the person rest and check periodically that they wake normally and make sense.

“Skip the blood thinner for a few days to be safe.” Unsupervised stopping trades one risk for another and can cause a stroke or valve clot. The right move is urgent assessment, with the prescriber deciding.

“Confusion in an 85-year-old is just age.” New or worsening confusion, especially in the weeks after a fall, is a symptom to investigate. Delirium and subdural hematoma are both treatable and both time-sensitive.

“A normal scan means it’s over.” A normal early scan rules out a bleed at that moment. Slow venous bleeding can appear later, which is why written discharge advice always lists warning signs to watch for over days and weeks.

“Recovery takes as long at 80 as at 30.” It often takes longer, and fatigue and slowed thinking may outlast the headache. Expecting that avoids the demoralizing sense that something has gone wrong when it has not.

Each of these corrections points the same way: err toward assessment, and keep the treating team informed of changes rather than interpreting them alone.

Questions to ask your care team

Emergency departments and ward rounds move quickly, and older patients are often accompanied by relatives who do the remembering. Writing questions down beforehand changes the quality of the conversation. These are the ones most worth asking, grouped by the stage of care.

In the first hours:

• Was a CT scan done, and what exactly did it show?
• If there is bleeding, is it the kind that tends to grow, and how will you know?
• Is my blood thinner being paused or reversed, and what is the plan for the clotting risk that medicine was protecting against?
• How long will observation last, and what specifically are you watching for?

Before going home:

• What changes over the next days and weeks should bring us straight back?
• Does someone need to stay with them, and for how long?
• Which medicines should be taken tonight, which are on hold, and who will make the restart decision?
• When is the follow-up appointment, and will a repeat scan be needed?

In the weeks after:

• Are the tiredness, headaches or slowed thinking within the expected range for this injury?
• Can we have a review of all current medicines with fall risk in mind?
• Would physical therapy or vestibular rehabilitation help with dizziness or unsteadiness?
• Should driving and living alone be reassessed, and by whom?
• What would make you reconsider whether the blood thinner is still the right choice?

A final question is often the most useful: who is coordinating this? When neurosurgery, cardiology, the primary care clinician and a rehabilitation team are all involved, knowing which one holds the overall plan prevents medicines and appointments from falling between them.

When to call your doctor: red-flag signs after a head injury

Because the dangerous bleeds in older adults are slow, the warning signs can appear hours, days or weeks after the fall, and they can appear after a first scan was normal. The list below reflects NHS and Mayo Clinic guidance and applies whether the person is at home, in a care setting or already discharged from hospital.

Call emergency services or go to an emergency department immediately if any of these develop:

• Drowsiness that is hard to interrupt, or difficulty waking the person
• New or worsening confusion, unusual behavior, or not recognizing familiar people
• A headache that is getting steadily worse or does not ease
• Repeated vomiting
• Weakness, numbness or clumsiness in an arm or leg, or a face that droops on one side
• Slurred speech, trouble understanding words, or new vision problems
• A seizure or any fit
• Loss of consciousness, however brief
• Clear fluid or blood coming from the nose or an ear
• Unequal pupils
• Any head injury at all in someone taking an anticoagulant or antiplatelet medicine, even without symptoms

Contact the usual doctor promptly, rather than waiting for a routine appointment, if milder symptoms such as headache, dizziness, poor concentration or unsteadiness last beyond about two weeks, if a new unsteadiness or fall occurs in the weeks after a head injury, or if a relative notices a gradual change in personality, alertness or memory that began after a stumble.

When in doubt, the safe default for an older adult on a blood thinner is to be seen. Clinicians would far rather review a well person than meet a chronic subdural hematoma three weeks late. Every decision about scans, observation, surgery and medicines rests with the treating team, and the most useful thing a patient or family can do is get the person in front of them.

Frequently asked questions

Should an older person on blood thinners go to the ER after a minor head bump?

Yes, according to NHS guidance, anyone taking an anticoagulant or antiplatelet medicine should be assessed in an emergency department after a head injury, even a minor one and even if they feel fine. Slowed clotting allows small venous tears to keep bleeding, and symptoms can lag hours or days behind the injury. Most guidance treats anticoagulant use as a reason for a prompt CT scan regardless of symptoms.

How long after a fall can a subdural hematoma appear in the elderly?

A chronic subdural hematoma can develop over days to weeks after a fall, according to the NHS and Cleveland Clinic, and the original injury is often so minor that it has been forgotten. Brain shrinkage with age creates space where blood collects slowly before it causes pressure. Gradual confusion, unsteadiness, persistent headache or drowsiness in the weeks after a stumble should prompt urgent medical review.

What is the typical concussion recovery time for older adults?

The NHS notes that mild symptoms such as headache, dizziness and feeling sick commonly last up to two weeks after a head injury, and advises seeing a doctor if they persist beyond that. Older adults frequently recover more slowly than younger people, and fatigue, poor concentration and slowed thinking often outlast the physical symptoms. Recovery varies widely, and the treating team is best placed to judge whether progress is within the expected range.

When are blood thinners restarted after a head injury?

There is no fixed rule; the prescribing team weighs the size and stability of any bleed on repeat imaging against the risk the medicine was preventing, such as stroke in atrial fibrillation or clotting on a mechanical valve. Typical intervals described in the literature range from days for a small stable finding to several weeks after a large or surgically treated bleed, but the evidence is mostly observational and the decision is individualized. Never restart or stop on your own.

Can a head injury be serious if there was no loss of consciousness?

Yes. Loss of consciousness is neither necessary nor a reliable guide to severity in older adults. Most chronic subdural hematomas follow injuries with no blackout, and the absence of a visible bump or bruise does not rule out internal bleeding. Age, blood-thinning medicines, vomiting, confusion, memory gaps and new weakness are the factors clinicians weigh, and anticoagulant use alone is usually enough to warrant a scan.

Is it safe to let an older person sleep after hitting their head?

Sleep itself is not the danger; being unable to wake normally is. Current NHS and Mayo Clinic advice is to let the person rest but to check periodically that they can be roused, respond sensibly and are not becoming progressively harder to wake. A responsible adult should stay with them for the first 24 hours after discharge, and increasing drowsiness, confusion or repeated vomiting should prompt an immediate return to emergency care.

Why do falls cause more brain injury in seniors than in younger adults?

Three factors combine. The brain loses volume with age, so it moves further inside the skull and stretches the fragile bridging veins on its surface. Many older adults take medicines that slow clotting, so a torn vein bleeds longer. And reduced physical reserve means the same injury produces more symptoms and slower recovery. The CDC reports that adults aged 75 and older have the highest rates of TBI-related hospitalization and death.

What is delirium after a brain injury and is it permanent?

Delirium is a sudden state of confusion, inattention and altered alertness that develops over hours, and older adults with a brain injury are particularly vulnerable to it, especially in hospital. It is usually temporary and improves as the underlying causes, such as pain, infection, dehydration or medicines, are addressed, but it can be mistaken for dementia or for a worsening bleed. New confusion after a head injury always needs medical assessment.

How is a chronic subdural hematoma treated in older adults?

Treatment depends on size, symptoms and overall health. Small collections without pressure symptoms may be monitored with repeat scans, since some resorb on their own. Larger or symptomatic ones are often drained surgically, most commonly through small holes drilled in the skull called burr holes, or occasionally through a larger opening called a craniotomy. Recurrence is possible after drainage, so follow-up imaging is routine, and decisions rest with the neurosurgical team.

What can reduce the chance of another fall after a brain injury?

The CDC’s guidance for older adults centers on regular strength and balance exercise such as tai chi, a review of all medicines with fall risk in mind, eye and hearing checks with updated correction, and removing home hazards like loose rugs, poor stair lighting and slippery footwear. Vestibular rehabilitation can help persistent dizziness after a concussion. These measures work together over months, and a physical therapist can tailor them to someone recovering from a head injury.

References

• CDC: Facts About TBI
• CDC: Older Adult Falls Data
• NHS: Head injury and concussion
• NHS: Subdural haematoma

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.