If tests done in the emergency room indicate a need for it, surgery may be done to prevent further damage from your child’s brain injury, as well as to prevent secondary complications. Reasons surgery may be done include:

• To relieve pressure in the brain.
• To stop bleeding in the brain.
• To remove blood clots in the brain.
• To remove objects that have penetrated the skull and entered the brain.

Many parents are terrified when they hear their child has to undergo brain surgery, and that’s completely understandable. However, it’s important for parents to understand that kids who undergo surgery as a result of a brain injury statistically don’t have more long-term effects than those kids who don’t need surgery. In other words, an injury that requires surgery is not necessarily more severe than an injury that doesn’t require surgery.