Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

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 →

METRO VANCOUVER - Neuroscientist Ryan DArcy envisions a future in which kids playing hockey can know immediately if a knock to the head is a harmless bump or a concussion. DArcy has been appointed to a newly created research chair for multimodal technology at Surrey Memorial Hospital with the goal of developing advanced diagnostic and treatment tools for the treatment of people with traumatic brain injuries. He hopes to adapt his portable Halifax Consciousness Scanner which uses brain wave patterns to assess mental function and detect damage to become a fixture in hospitals and hockey rinks alike. We have vital signs like blood pressure and pulse but, despite having the technology, we still havent developed a vital sign for determining if your brain is working as it should be or if youve got a concussion, DArcy said. We want to create something as easy to use as a home blood pressure cuff to take a quick reading of your brains functional status, so you know if youve got a concussion. Such a device would detect deviations from established measures of normal brain function for rinkside assessment, but would become a much more powerful diagnostic tool if an individual is tested … Continue reading →

COMMENTARY | Simply put, "war is hell," and this may one of the most important factors on determining why unmitigated benefits for veterans that suffer with service-connected traumatic brain injury receive optimum health care related to this distressing crisis. My heart goes out to all of the men and women who served in the armed forces, especially scores of those who are suffering from a variety of depression and anxiety related to traumatic brain injury. My veteran status does allow me to receive treatment for anxiety and depression, a benefit that I do not take for granted. At some point in my four-year tenure as a Coast Guard Seaman, there was one incident where I had to receive an MRI due to a freak accident. If I were not a full-time Coast Guardsmen during the 1980s, my hospital price tag would have cost me thousands of dollars. Today's post-war veterans deserve the best treatment related to traumatic brain injury. President Obama's nominee for Department of Defense, Chuck Hagel, can play a pivotal role at how much care these post-war veterans will be able to receive. It has become abundantly clear that the war in the Middle East is a sobering … Continue reading →

Tel Aviv, Jan 24 (IANS) High levels of oxygen reverse brain damage caused by a stroke, traumatic injury or metabolic disorder even years after the event, an Israeli study says. Shai Efrati of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and colleague Eshel Ben-Jacob, professor of physics and astronomy, recruited post-stroke patients for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) - sessions in high pressure chambers that contain oxygen-rich air - which increases oxygen levels in the body tenfold. Analysis of brain imaging showed significantly increased neuronal (brain cell) activity after a two-month period of HBOT treatment, compared to patients who did not undergo treatment, says Efrati, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reports. Patients experienced a reversal of paralysis, increased sensation, and renewed use of language. These changes can make a world of difference in daily life, helping patients recover their independence and complete tasks such as bathing, cooking, climbing stairs, or reading a book, according to a Tel Aviv statement. According to Efrati, there are several degrees of brain injuries. Neurons impacted by metabolic dysfunction have the energy to stay alive, but not enough to fire electric signals, he explains. HBOT aims to increase the supply of energy to these … Continue reading →

Jan. 23, 2013 Stroke, traumatic injury, and metabolic disorder are major causes of brain damage and permanent disabilities, including motor dysfunction, psychological disorders, memory loss, and more. Current therapy and rehab programs aim to help patients heal, but they often have limited success. Now Dr. Shai Efrati of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine has found a way to restore a significant amount of neurological function in brain tissue thought to be chronically damaged -- even years after initial injury. Theorizing that high levels of oxygen could reinvigorate dormant neurons, Dr. Efrati and his fellow researchers, including Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob of TAU's School of Physics and Astronomy and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, recruited post-stroke patients for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) -- sessions in high pressure chambers that contain oxygen-rich air -- which increases oxygen levels in the body tenfold. Analysis of brain imaging showed significantly increased neuronal activity after a two-month period of HBOT treatment compared to control periods of non-treatment, reported Dr. Efrati in PLoS ONE. Patients experienced improvements such as a reversal of paralysis, increased sensation, and renewed use of language. These changes can make a world of difference in daily life, helping patients recover their … Continue reading →

The NIH-funded project will investigate new methods for better assessing TBI. Clifton Park, NY (PRWEB) January 23, 2013 Nearly 1.7 million Americans suffer TBI annually as a result of car accidents, blunt trauma, gunshots, military combat, and other head traumas. Many who experience TBI require surgical intervention, and in some cases, require daily assistance for years post-injury. Healthcare costs associated with current TBI treatment exceed $60 billion a year; however, existing analytic assessment methods fall short of clinical need. Clinicians require informative metrics and easy-to-use image analysis tools capable of handling large, heterogeneous pathologies that cause severe brain deformations. To address these critical needs, Kitware will collaborate with Dr. Marc Niethammer at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Dr. Jack Van Horn at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The team will leverage computational methods for segmenting, registering, and interpreting images that contain large and changing pathologies to better characterize injury, quantify longitudinal changes, predict outcomes, and support patient treatment management. At Kitware, Stephen Aylward, Senior Director of Operations, North Carolina, is the Principal Investigator; he will work closely with Project Leader Danielle Pace, a Research and Development Engineer at Kitware. The team will perform multimodal brain … Continue reading →