THIS MIGHT BE the most metal thing that has ever happened.
Doctors in Germany have given details today of a 50-year-old patient last year who developed bleeding in his brain after headbanging at a Motörhead gig.
The report published in the Lancet describes how the man had two weeks of constant and worsening headaches affecting his whole head. He had no previous head trauma but four weeks before he had been at the Motörhead concert, headbanging along with his fellow metal fans.
A cranial CT confirmed the man had a chronic subdural haematoma – bleeding in his brain – and surgeons removed a blood clot through a hole, draining it for six days after his surgery.
Thankfully, his banging headache subsided and he was well again on his last examination two months later.
The medical journal describes headbanging as “the violent and rhythmic movement of the head synchronous with rock music, most commonly heavy metal”. Although it is generally considered harmless, headbanging-related injuries include carotid artery dissection, whiplash, mediastinal emphysema, and odontoid neck fracture.
This was the first reported case showing evidence that it can cause chronic bleeding in the brain.
Dr Ariyan Pirayesh of the Hanover Medical School said this case “serves as evidence in support of Motörhead’s reputation as one of the most hardcore rock’n’roll acts on earth, if nothing else because of their music’s contagious speed drive and the hazardous potential for headbanging fans to suffer brain injury”.
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