Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Most in-hospital deaths of patients with stroke, traumatic brain injury, or postanoxic encephalopathy after cardiac arrest occur after a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments. Decisions on treatment restrictions in these patients are generally complex and are based only in part on evidence from published work. Prognostic models to be used in this decision-making process should have a strong discriminative power. However, for most causes of acute brain injury, prognostic models are not sufficiently accurate to serve as the sole basis of decisions to limit treatment. These decisions are also complicated because patients often do not have the capacity to communicate their preferences. Additionally, surrogate decision makers might not accurately represent the patient's preferences. Finally, in the acute stage, prediction of how a patient would adapt to a life with major disability is difficult. See the article here: End-of-life decisions in patients with severe acute brain injury … Continue reading →

A file image of Lucas Neville and his mother Michelle Neville outside the High Court in Dublin. The former St Michaels College student was today awarded 2.75 million damages for a brain injury suffered during a rugby match. Photograph: Collins A young man who suffered a serious head injury during a schools rugby match has secured 2.75 million damages, plus costs, under a settlement approved by the High Court today. Lucas Nevilles mother Michelle told Ms Justice Mary Irvine she was consenting to the offer made but it was a matter of regret to herself and her son they have never received any apology from either his former school or St Vincents Hospital arising from the injury he had suffered. What happened to him and what he went through should not have happened, she said. Mr Neville had sued his former school, St Michaels College, Ailesbury Road, Dublin, and St Vincents Healthcare Group, as owner of St Vincents Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin, arising from the injury in November 2009. Both defendants had admitted liability but disputed Mr Nevilles claim for some 5 million damages. A central dispute between the sides related to the fact the 5 million claim included a … Continue reading →

Shelbyville, Ind. (PRWEB) March 23, 2014 Cook Medical, a medical products company headquartered in Bloomington, Ind., has received FDA approval for use of their Biodesign Dural Graft in patients who experience a leakage of cerebrospinal fluid after surgery or a brain injury. While biomaterials have been used for many years in other applications, like hernia surgery, expanding their scope to include brain repair holds promise for millions who sustain traumatic brain injury. "We're serving a whole new patient population here," said Tom Cherry, global leader for Cook's head and neck surgery division, in the March 15 issue of the Indy Star. According to the Brain Injury Association, 2.4 million Americans sustain a brain injury each year from falls, car crashes, and workplace injuries, as well as assaults and military service. Eighty percent of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks occur after a non-surgical head trauma, according to one study, so this new approach to treating them holds real promise, said Indianapolis personal injury Mike Stephenson. Victims of a traumatic brain injury face so many risks, from the initial hospitalization and treatment to their reintegration into society. For the millions who suffer a TBI, research and medical advances are essential to their very … Continue reading →

(PRWEB) March 23, 2014 MediCortex, a start-up pharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions, is developing therapeutic drugs which will limit the long-term effects of brain injury, including the types of severe brain trauma that veterans have received in combat. MediCortex, currently in the proof-of-concept stage, is seeking an investment to support synthesis and initial in-vitro tissue culture studies for assessing the biological activity and lack of toxicity of its pipeline compounds. TBI is an extremely serious and, unfortunately, increasingly common condition which, for combat veterans, is in most cases the direct result of close proximity to the concussive force of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mortars, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and other explosive ordnance. The symptoms of TBI which occur as a result of repeated head trauma include sleep disturbance, problems with concentration, ringing in the ears, nausea, and seizures. When left untreated, these symptoms can develop into more severe neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimers and Parkinsons. Due to the concussive blasts of IEDs in Afghanistan and Iraq, an alarming number of veterans some 200,000, according to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center currently suffer from TBI-related problems. Unfortunately, many if not most were misdiagnosed because, as noted by … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise A neuroscientist at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech says she hopes that a better understanding of how the brain restores blood flow to damaged tissue following a stroke will offer new treatment clues for a leading cause of death in the United States. Michelle Theus, an assistant professor of molecular and cellular neurobiology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology, is investigating how the brain develops collateral blood vessels which re-route blood flow after a vessel becomes blocked. When the brain suffers from a blockage or clot, a network of replacement vessels, known as collaterals, can restore oxygen and nutrients to damaged tissue. The extent of the brains collateral network varies from individual to individual and has a significant impact on the brains ability to recover from stroke. It is widely known, clinically, that patients with an extensive collateral network have greater restoration of blood flow and are better protected from tissue damage following an embolic stroke, said Theus, who explained that an embolic stroke involves a blood clot forming somewhere in the body and traveling through the bloodstream to the brain. She is searching for … Continue reading →

LAWTON, Okla._Oklahoma's veterans who are battling serious brain injuries might soon be able to get free treatment. The State Senate has approved a bill that would provide Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for free to any veteran who has been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. Some medical experts agree that the procedure has proven to be very effective, and veterans are eager to receive any help they can get in their recovery. Rick Jerez was in the Marine Corps for eight years and stationed in Beirut, he is now considered 100% disabled and fully understands how state funding can help veterans get the aid their need. "Obviously anything that has science backing its function and its results, anything that would benefit veterans should be something we absolutely should consider. I mean, where is the negative," said Jerez. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can have several benefits for anyone, veteran or not, who has suffered a traumatic brain injury. "And when we put a patient in the chamber we basically create a high-enriched oxygen state and the high enriched oxygen state has multiple wound healing benefits," said Dr. Aryan Kadivar, Medical Director for Southwestern Medical Wound Center. One of the benefits of using the … Continue reading →

By Silas Allen The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman Published: March 20, 2014 When Capt. Matt Smothermon came home from a deployment to Afghanistan with the Oklahoma National Guards 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, he wasnt the same person. He suffered debilitating headaches and couldnt think properly. He had a hard time focusing, he said, and social situations became difficult to handle. Things got bad, he said. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Smothermon credited a relatively new type of treatment for giving him his life back. State lawmakers are seeking to make that treatment available at no cost to other veterans with traumatic brain injury. While in Afghanistan, Smothermon was a platoon leader on a route clearance team, searching for roadside bombs. After surviving three separate bomb blasts, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. When he returned home, Smothermon noticed the lasting effects the injury had on his cognitive and social skills. Hed been in law school when he deployed, but didnt see a way he could finish. He decided to undergo hyperbaric oxygen therapy through the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. He noticed a difference almost immediately, he said. He began to regain his cognitive … Continue reading →

An American news correspondent, Bob Woodruff of ABC TV, suffered a brain injury in 2006 from a roadside bomb while covering the Iraq war. The injury was so severe that part of his skull was removed and he was kept in an induced medical coma for about a month. Many believed that he would never walk again. However, after more than a year of intensive treatment that included relearning of speech, he was able to eventually return to work as a reporter and produced a documentary about injuries in American soldiers and the lack of care of the US government. Woodruffs recovery is a great example of how an adult with an injured brain can come back to a productive life which, only a few decades ago, was not believed to be possible. Every morning when you wake up, you are physically a different person. Yes, you are a new creature when examined under an electronic microscope. One obvious change is your hair. It grows every day, and this is the reason men and women have it trimmed regularly. The covering of our body, the skin, also changes regularly in its outermost cells called the epidermis. You cannot see it … Continue reading →

When Capt. Matt Smothermon came home from a deployment to Afghanistan with the Oklahoma National Guards 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, he wasnt the same person. He suffered debilitating headaches and couldnt think properly. He had a hard time focusing, he said, and social situations became difficult to handle. Things got bad, he said. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Smothermon credited a relatively new type of treatment for giving him his life back. State lawmakers are seeking to make that treatment available at no cost to other veterans with traumatic brain injury. While in Afghanistan, Smothermon was a platoon leader on a route clearance team, searching for roadside bombs. After surviving three separate bomb blasts, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. When he returned home, Smothermon noticed the lasting effects the injury had on his cognitive and social skills. Hed been in law school when he deployed, but didnt see a way he could finish. He decided to undergo hyperbaric oxygen therapy through the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. He noticed a difference almost immediately, he said. He began to regain his cognitive and social skills. After 40 rounds of the treatment, he was … Continue reading →

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 1.4 million Americans suffer traumatic brain injury every year. Traumatic brain injury is defined as a non-degenerative, non-congenital insult to the brain from an external mechanical force, possibly leading to permanent or temporary impairment of cognitive, physical and psychosocial functions, with an associated diminished or altered state of consciousness. Pain is a common concern after suffering a brain injury. This pain is usually self-limiting and resolves as tissues, like strained muscles or fractured bones, heal. Sometimes, however, pain lingers beyond the time frame expected for the injured tissues to heal. We call this type of pain chronic or persistent pain. Pain is typically considered chronic if it lasts longer than three to six months. There appears to be a link between traumatic brain injury and the development of chronic pain. It also appears that individuals who have had a mild brain injury tend to develop chronic pain syndromes at a higher rate than those with more severe types of brain injury, but the reason for this is unknown. Chronic pain after traumatic brain injury can take the form of headache and migraine, musculoskeletal pain (neck pain, low back pain), visceral … Continue reading →