Insult (medical)

In medical terms, an insult is the cause of some kind of physical or mental injury. For example, a burn on the skin (the injury) may be the result of a thermal, chemical, radioactive, or electrical event (the insult).^[1] Likewise, sepsis and trauma are examples of foreign insults,^[2] and encephalitis, multiple sclerosis, and brain tumors are examples of insults to the brain.^[3] Clinicians may use the term cerebrovascular insult (CVI) as a synonym for a stroke.^[4][5]

Insults may be categorized as either genetic or environmental.^[6]