Chapter 28 head and spine

A patient with a head injury presents with abnormal flexion of his extremities. What numeric value should you assign to him for motor response?

3

In supine patients with a head injury, the head should be elevated _____ to help reduce intracranial pressure.

30 degrees

Inability to remember events after a head injury

Anterograde amnesia

Which of the following sets of vital signs depicts Cushing triad?

Blood pressure, 190/110 mm Hg; pulse, 55 beats/min; respirations, 30 breaths/min

The _________ is the best-protected part of the CNS and controls the functions of the cardiac and respiratory systems.

Brain stem

Temporary loss of the brain's ability to function without actual physical damage

Concussion

Which of the following statements regarding secondary brain injury is correct?

Hypoxia and hypotension are the two most common causes of secondary brain injury.

Which of the following breathing patterns is MOST indicative of increased intracranial pressure?

Irregular rate, pattern, and volume of breathing with intermittent periods of apnea

Inability to remember events leading up to a head injury

Retrograde amnesia

What part of the nervous system controls the body's voluntary activities?

Somatic

Neck rigidity, bloody cerebrospinal fluid, and headache are associated with what kind of bleeding in the brain?

Subarachnoid hemorrhage

Accumulation of blood beneath the dura mater but outside the brain

Subdural hematoma

Which of the following statements regarding motor nerves is correct?

They carry information from the CNS to the muscles.

A man jumped from the roof of his house and landed on his feet. He complains of pain to his heels, knees, and lower back. This mechanism of injury is an example of:

axial loading

Swelling of the brain

cerebral edema

The tough, fibrous outer meningeal layer is called the:

dura mater.

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is used to assess:

eye opening, verbal response, motor response

In a patient with a head injury, hypertension, bradycardia, and Biot respirations indicate:

herniation of the brain stem.

You respond to a 38-year-old man who fell while rock climbing. He is unconscious with an open airway. The respiration and pulse rates are within normal limits. His distal pulses are intact. You check his pupils and find that they are unequal. You know this could be a sign of:

increased intracranial pressure

Once a cervical collar has been applied to a patient with a possible spinal injury, it should not be removed unless:

it causes a problem managing the airway

A tight-fitting motorcycle helmet should be left in place unless:

it interferes with your assessment of the airway.

Which of the following is NOT a symptom of a concussion?

muscle tremors

The nervous system is divided into the central nervous system and the:

peripheral nervous system.

When activated, the sympathetic nervous system produces all of the following effects, EXCEPT:

pupillary constriction

Which of the following nerves carry information from the body to the brain via the spinal cord?

sensory

Which of the following statements regarding a basilar skull fracture is correct?

the absence of raccoon eyes and battle scars does not rule it out

The ideal procedure for moving an injured patient from the ground to a backboard is:

the four-person log roll.

When immobilizing a trauma patient's spine, the EMT manually stabilizing the head should not let go until:

the patient has been completely secured to the backboard.