Brain Injury: A Major Risk for Stroke

A traumatic brain injury happens when an exterior force, such as a blow or jolt to the head, disrupts the normal function of the brain. Some general causes of a traumatic brain injury include falls, car accidents and violence. About 1 in 53 Americans suffers a traumatic brain injury every year.

"It’s reasonable to assume that cerebrovascular damage in the head caused by a traumatic brain injury can trigger also a hemorrhagic stroke [when a blood vessel bursts inside the brain] or an ischemic stroke [when an artery in the brain is blocked]," Herng-Ching Lin, Ph.D., senior study author and professor at the School of Health Care Administration, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, was quoted as saying. "However, until now, no researches have been done showing a correlation involving traumatic brain injury and stroke."

Investigators studied the risk of stroke in traumatic brain injury patients through a five-year period. During the first three months after the injury occurred, 2.91 percent of the traumatic brain injury patients suffered a stroke compared to only 0.30 percent of those devoid of a traumatic brain injury. The researchers say the risk of stroke regularly decreased over time. After one year, the risk was about 4.6-times greater for traumatic brain injury patients, and behind five years, the risk was about 2.3-times greater.