Headache after head trauma caused by attack

Dear Ask The Doctor: My brother (24) was attacked 2 weeks ago and his face was badly beaten but now he keeps getting really painful headaches when he goes to bed and it feels like he has a piece of bone or something loose between his eye socket and nose

Dear Toni: Most likely the beaten of the face and possibly head caused a concussion which is a brain injury that may produce headache, altered levels of alertness and unconsciousness. This significant blow to the head shakes the brain inside the skull, and temporarily prevents the brain from working normally; the blow may be mild, moderate or severe. Sometimes a person, who has a more serious concussion, may develop new symptoms over time and feels worse than when the injury happened, this is “Post Concussive Syndrome”. It is important if over the time your brother starts to show Post Concussive Symptoms, call your doctor and get a thoroughly neurological evaluation also a face fracture has to be rule out in his case. The post concussive symptoms include: difficulty to think, concentrate or remember; headaches or blurry vision; becoming angry or anxious for no reason; lack of interest in usual activities, changes in sex drive, dizziness, lightheadedness or unsteadiness that makes difficult to walk or standing. It is not easy to predict the outcome in terms of neurologic sequels, some people feel normal again in a few hours after a concussion while others have symptoms and sequels for weeks or months, it depends on each case in particular and also depends on the severity of the blow.