Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Feb. 7, 2013 Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion, is one of the most common types of neurological disorder, affecting approximately 1.3 million Americans annually. It has received more attention recently because of its frequency and impact among two groups of patients: professional athletes, especially football players; and soldiers returning from mid-east conflicts with blast-related TBI. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of the more than 2 million U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan have experienced TBI. A recent study by psychiatrists from the Iowa City VA Medical Center and University of Iowa Health Care finds that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mild TBI have measurable abnormalities in the white matter of their brains when compared to returning veterans who have not experienced TBI. These abnormalities appear to be related to the severity of the injury and are related to cognitive deficits. The findings were published online in December in the American Journal of Psychiatry. "In the military population we studied, patients with TBI have more alterations, sometimes called 'potholes,' in the white matter of their brains than patients without a history of TBI," says senior study author Ricardo Jorge, M.D., UI professor of psychiatry. "The … Continue reading →

Groundbreaking new treatment dissolves 'golf ball-sized' clots Patients who use drugs had less disability a year later, study says Clots removed in 50 per cent of patients given medication, compared to just 5 per cent receiving standard care By Jenny Hope PUBLISHED: 20:26 EST, 7 February 2013 | UPDATED: 02:58 EST, 8 February 2013 Groundbreaking: New treatment which sees drugs inserted in the brain of stroke victims could help thousands who suffer a brain haemorrhage (file picture Surgeons are inserting drugs in the brain of stroke victims to dissolve golf ball-sized clots in a groundbreaking new treatment. The technique could help thousands of patients who suffer a bleeding stroke, or brain haemorrhage, for which there is currently no surgical treatment. A study shows that clots were removed in 50 per cent of patients given medication directly into the brain, compared with just 5 per cent of patients receiving standard care. Patients having surgery using clot-buster drugs had significantly less disability a year later, according to research presented at the American Stroke Associations annual conference. Bleeding strokes in the brain affect one in seven stroke victims in the UK about 20,000 a year and occur when a weakened blood vessel in … Continue reading →

Public release date: 5-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Sandy Van sandy@prpacific.com 808-526-1708 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center LOS ANGELES (Feb. 5, 2013) An international multicenter clinical trial led by a Cedars-Sinai neurologist on the combination of brain cooling and "clot-busting" drug therapy after stroke has received Food and Drug Administration approval to expand from 50 patients to 400. "This approval is highly significant because, after reviewing our initial safety data, the Food and Drug Administration approved us to include more patients in our study," said Patrick D. Lyden, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the study's overall principal investigator. Thomas Hemmen, MD, PhD, director of the University of California, San Diego Health System Stroke Center, and James C. Grotta, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), are co-principal investigators. This study, which includes the use of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV tPA), the only FDA-approved treatment for acute stroke, is the latest in a series of clinical trials on brain cooling controlled hypothermia to reduce neurological damage after stroke. Researchers employ a state-of-the-art system to provide rapid heat exchange and very fast … Continue reading →

Feb. 6, 2013 U.S. soldiers in combat often suffer constricted blood vessels and increased pressure in the brain -- significant complications of traumatic brain injuries, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2013. "Research shows that traumatic brain injury is a hallmark of recent military conflicts, affecting nearly a third of all wounded soldiers," said Alexander Razumovsky, Ph.D., lead researcher and director of Sentient NeuroCare Services in Hunt Valley, Md. Constricted blood vessels in the brain are cerebral vasospasm. Abnormally high pressure in the brain is intracranial hypertension. A transcranial Doppler ultrasound is a non-invasive, inexpensive and portable way to assess these complications. To better understand how common these complications are among soldiers, Razumovsky and colleagues analyzed data of 122 traumatic brain injury patients who had transcranial Doppler testing. Among them, 88 had penetrating head injuries and 34 had closed head injuries. Researchers found: "What we've found is applicable and important to civilian traumatic brain injury patients, given that a significant number of them will have posttraumatic bleeding that will lead to vasospasm and intracranial hypertension," Razumovsky said. "Tracking and managing these patients is important, and therefore daily transcranial Doppler studies are recommended for recognition … Continue reading →

Email Barbara D. Livingston It is uncertain how long Ramon Dominguez will have to remain at his rehabilitation facility. Jockey Ramon Dominguez has begun a brain injury rehabilitation program at a hospital in White Plains, N.Y., as he continues to recover from a fractured skull he suffered in a spill at Aqueduct last month. Last Wednesday, Dominguez was transferred from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan to the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital. It is uncertain how long he will have to remain at Burke. "Ramon continues to do well and is improving every day," Sharon Dominguez, Ramon's wife, said in a press release issued through the New York Racing Association. "He was transferred to Burke on Wednesday, completed initial evaluations on Thursday, and started a brain injury rehabilitation program on Friday. "As Ramon takes the next steps in his treatment, he and I would like to thank everyone again for the continued support and prayers." Dominguez added. "Although his injury will take time to heal, Ramon is on the road to a full recovery." Dominguez, 36, was injured in a spill at Aqueduct on Jan. 18 when the horse he was riding, Convocation, clipped heels with a horse in … Continue reading →

Feb. 4, 2013 Visual symptoms and abnormalities occur at high rates in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) -- including Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans with blast-related TBI, reports a study, "Abnormal Fixation in Individuals with AMD when Viewing an Image of a Face," in the February issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. Vision problems are similar for military and civilian patients with TBI, and are common even after relatively mild brain injury, according to the report by Gregory L. Goodrich, PhD, of the VA Palo Alto (Calif.) Health Care System and colleagues. "Comprehensive eye examinations are recommended following even mild traumatic brain injury," comments Anthony Adams, OD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Optometry and Vision Science. High Rate of Vision Problems in after TBI The researchers analyzed rates and types of vision problems in 50 Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans with blast-related TBI. Blast-related TBI is a unique type of injury, with brain trauma caused by proximity to a blast or explosion, such as from an improvised explosive device. "There is understandably a great deal of interest in the impact of war injuries on veterans and the eyes are among the most impacted … Continue reading →

Email Barbara D. Livingston It is uncertain how long Ramon Dominguez will have to remain at his rehabilitation facility. Jockey Ramon Dominguez has begun a brain injury rehabilitation program at a hospital in White Plains, N.Y., as he continues to recover from a fractured skull he suffered in a spill at Aqueduct last month. Last Wednesday, Dominguez was transferred from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan to the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital. It is uncertain how long he will have to remain at Burke. "Ramon continues to do well and is improving every day," Sharon Dominguez, Ramon's wife, said in a press release issued through the New York Racing Association. "He was transferred to Burke on Wednesday, completed initial evaluations on Thursday, and started a brain injury rehabilitation program on Friday. "As Ramon takes the next steps in his treatment, he and I would like to thank everyone again for the continued support and prayers." Dominguez added. "Although his injury will take time to heal, Ramon is on the road to a full recovery." Dominguez, 36, was injured in a spill at Aqueduct on Jan. 18 when the horse he was riding, Convocation, clipped heels with a horse in … Continue reading →

Social worker Gayle Taylor is part of a care provider network for a Kansas man who suffered a traumatic brain injury and compounds his predicament by engaging in substance abuse. In mid-January, Taylor said she arrived at the Medicaid client's home to find him bleeding from an arm wound. He apparently didn't grasp how or where to get help and languished for five days without treatment. Gov. Sam Brownback had turned over the state's $3.2 billion Medicaid program two weeks earlier to United HealthCare, Sunflower State Health Plan and Amerigroup companies to operate a managed-care system designed to improve care for 380,000 Kansans and save the state an estimated $1 billion over five years. Taylor, who owns Burlington-based Therapy Services, related snippets of her client's situation during a Statehouse rally and a subsequent interview. "What I'm so afraid of is, without proper care, people are either going to end up dead, homeless, in jail or in a nursing home. They will lose their independence,"she said. Kari Bruffett, director of the division of health care finance at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, looked into the situation during the past week and concluded Taylor's client was receiving all services he … Continue reading →

When Gene Locks led Princeton against Columbia on Oct.7, 1957, it took the Tigers quarterback only a few plays to discover that the middle of the Columbia line was paper thin, according to the Daily Princetonian. In the Tigers single-wing offense, Locks served as a blocker, leaving gaping holes in Columbias defense on the way to a 47-6 wipeout. Fifty-six years later, a grayer, wider Locks sits in his Philadelphia law office behind piles of client files. Black-and-white gridiron photos of his svelte younger self look down from a shelf. In the 1970s he brought some of the first lawsuits on behalf of pipe fitters exposed to asbestos insulation. His firm eventually represented more than 16,000 asbestos clients in 20 states. In the late 1990s he helped lead the Fen-Phen diet drug litigation, which culminated in a $6billion settlement. Now 75, Locks has earned a fortune in fees. In 2011 he had planned to spend more time with his grandchildren. Then these concussion cases started coming in, he says. I remember what its like to get your bell rung. Even as an expected 110million Americans take to their couches for the 47th Super Bowl on Feb.3, Locks is waging a … Continue reading →

Jan. 31, 2013 A team of scientists from Canada, Thailand and Morocco have found that DHEA-S may prevent neurocognitive impairment that affects a significant percentage of AIDS patients. In a report appearing in the February 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal, they describe how a network of steroid molecules found in the brain, termed "neurosteroids," is disrupted during HIV infection leading to brain damage. This suggests that treatment with one of these steroid molecules, called DHEA-S, may offset the disruption caused by the virus to prevent or reduce brain damage. "From these studies, we have gained a better understanding of how HIV injures the brain during AIDS, together with developing a new treatment approach for the resulting neurological disabilities arising from HIV/AIDS," said Christopher Power, M.D., co-author of this study from the Department of Medicine at the Medical Research Centre at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. To make their discovery, Power and colleagues initially found that neurosteroid enzyme levels were suppressed in the brains of people with HIV/AIDS and that a neurosteroid molecule, DHEA-S, prevented damage to cultured brain cells (neurons) caused by HIV. Then, using an animal model of AIDS, they showed that treatment with DHEA-S prevented … Continue reading →