Ted Dwane, bassist for the musical group Mumford & Sons, has a blood clot on the surface of his brain, which requires him to have emergency surgery, according to news reports.
HuffPost Entertainment reported that the blood clot was discovered via a scan after he reported not feeling well. Because of Dwane's surgery, the group has canceled concerts this week.
According to the American Society of Hematology, symptoms of a blood clot in the brain include seizures, speech problems, visual disturbances and weakness. Depending on where the clot is located in the body, treatment could range from blood-clot dissolving medicines or blood-clot preventing medicines, to surgery.
Blood clots usually form when your blood vessels experience injury, and dissolve away once the injury is healed; however, sometimes the clots form in non-injured blood vessels, or don't dissolve completely, according to the American Society of Hematology. The Mayo Clinic reported that blood clots can also break off and travel to other parts of the body, such as the lungs (which causes life-threatening pulmonary embolism) and the brain (which can lead to stroke if an artery that supplies blood to the brain is blocked by the clot).
There are numerous risk factors for blood clots, and they are different depending on whether the blood clot is an arterial blood clot or a venous blood clot. Venous blood clot risk factors include age, smoking status, obesity, not moving for long periods of time, some surgeries and birth control use, among other factors. Arterial blood clot risk factors include high cholesterol, hypertension, smoking, obesity, diabetes and not exercising, the American Society of Hematology reported.
It's not known what caused Dwane's blood clot, but The National Journal previously reported that trauma-induced blood clots that are on top of the brain are called subdural or epidural hematomas, and are typically treated with surgery.
Hillary Clinton also recently experienced a blood clot in her head, after an exam administered after she experienced a concussion revealed that there was a clot in a vein between her skull and her brain, CNN reported. She was treated with blood thinners.
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