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Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

Steven Doerr, MD

Steven Doerr, MD

Steven Doerr, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Emergency Medicine Physician. Dr. Doerr received his undergraduate degree in Spanish from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He graduated with his Medical Degree from the University Of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado in 1998 and completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine from Denver Health Medical Center in Denver, Colorado in 2002, where he also served as Chief Resident.

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Brain lesion types are vast, but there are terms and categories that help to classify the various conditions. The major types of brain lesions are listed below, along with an example within that category:

• Traumatic: gunshot wound to the brain
  
  
• Infectious: meningitis
  
  
• Malignant (cancerous): glioma
  
  
• Benign (non-cancerous): meningioma
  
  
• Vascular: stroke
  
  
• Genetic: neurofibromatosis
  
  
• Immune: multiple sclerosis
  
  
• Plaques (deposits of substances in brain tissue): Alzheimer's disease
  
  
• Brain cell death or malfunction: Parkinson's disease
  
  
• Ionizing radiation: radiation exposure leading to death of normal brain tissue

There are other types of brain lesions that have been associated with exposure to chemicals (nitrites), toxins (pesticides), and electromagnetic fields, but because research is ongoing with these associations, some investigators may consider these as potential causes of brain lesions.

Finally, there are brain lesions that are of mixed types (for example, genetic with brain cell death as seen in Huntington's disease). Although these general types listed above are not accepted by all medical professionals, they are a starting point for many to help caregivers explain what type of brain lesion an individual may have.

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