Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Posted by Kevin ColuccioNovember 14, 2012 9:09 PM This past weekend concussions suffered by three National Football League quarterbacks illustrated a common problem found with those suffering traumatic brain injuries. One news report indicated that 25% of the National Football League games on Sunday say a starting quarterback leave the game with a concussion. It has been reported that three professional athletes continued to play after suffering concussions. They were eventually pulled from their games. A mild traumatic brain injury is different from other serious injuries as the injury is not detected. Other serious injuries such as broken bones, a torn knee injury or a separated shoulder are detected quickly. Treatment for those injuries often occurs immediately. An estimated 1.7 million children and adults in the United States sustain a trumatic brain injury. Some believe that this number is much greater, as many mild traumatic brain injuries are not reported each year. Currently more than 3.1 million children and adults in the United States live with a lifelong disability as a result of a traumatic brain injury. Many mild traumatic brain injuries go undetected. Symptoms of a mild traumatic brain injury may include the following: * Loss of consciousness for … Continue reading →

Treatment for Cognitive Disorders following TBI | Kristin King, Ph.D., CCC-SLP In a TBI population, cognitive changes are often the most salient features after traumatic brain injury of any severity, and they typically contribute more to a persisting disability than do physical impairments. These changes may include negative impacts on attention, memory, processing speed, and multiple other aspects of cognition and language. However, the cognitive aspects of brain injury and their impact on language and everyday function are often overlooked for various reasons. This presentation will present current methods for therapeutic interventions for the rehabilitation of adults following brain injury, in multiple settings. Techniques discussed will be reinforced through the instructional methods of: PowerPoint presentation and audience participation in treatment techniques. Watch the full course online at: http://www.videoce.tvFrom:ahcEducationViews:0 0ratingsTime:06:31More inEducation Read more: Treatment for Cognitive Disorders following TBI | Kristin King, Ph.D., CCC-SLP - Video … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2012) A new study using brevetoxin-2, a compound produced naturally by marine algae, stimulated nerve cell growth and plasticity in cultured mouse neurons. This research advances a potentially new pharmacological treatment to aid recovery of brain function following a stroke or other traumatic brain injury. Stroke is a leading cause of death in the United States with more than 795,000 people suffering a stroke each year, according to the Center for Disease Control. Stroke is a leading cause of serious long-term disability and there is currently no drug treatment for post-stroke rehabilitation. "Our research suggests that compounds like brevetoxin-2 can augment neuronal plasticity potentially providing a neural repair therapy for stroke recovery. If that outcome can be supported by further studies in animals and subsequently humans, it could have a profound impact on a currently non-treatable condition," said Thomas F. Murray, Ph.D. associate vice president for Health Science Research and professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology, Creighton School of Medicine. The research team from Creighton University School of Medicine, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography published their findings in the Nov. 12 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National … Continue reading →

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor After a decade of war,America is well schooled on post-traumatic stress, lost limbs and traumatic brain injury, but the most common injury sustained by U.S. troops is literally a silent wound: hearing loss. Mark Brogan, a retired Army captain, can speak quite personally about almost all of those examples of combat carnage he suffered a brain injury, a spinal injury and a nearly severed right arm when a suicide bomber on foot detonated his weapon near Brogan six year ago in Iraq. Courtesy of Mark Brogan Mark Brogan sustained a spinal injury, a brain injury, a nearly severed arm - and severe hearing loss - when a suicide bomber blew himself up not far from Brogan in Iraq six years ago. What does Brogan, 32, consider the worst of the physical trauma? Hearing loss and the brain injury, he said from his home in Knoxville, Tenn. He has profound unusable hearing in his right ear and severe hearing loss in his left, he said, along with constant ringing, or tinnitus, in his ears. After the insurgent's bomb killed a soldier just behind Brogan along with the person who was wearing the device other U.S. … Continue reading →

The explosive blast that forever changed Vanessa Molinas life struck on a desolate road in Iraq in 2006 as she drove a gun truck guarding a supply convoy. Molina, 30, described the roadside bomb blast as a big, bright orange light that just lasted forever. The force knocked her 2 1/2-ton truck off the road, tore away the drivers-side door and cracked Molinas protective eyewear. The blast was horrible, she recalled. Thats what scares me, the force of that device that much power. A U.S. Army Reserve staff sergeant with the 281st Transportation Company based in Las Cruces, Molina struggles with depression and memory problems that she now recognizes as symptoms of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Molina is one of 2,461 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars treated for PTSD at the New Mexico VA Health Care System between Oct. 1, 2001, and June 30, 2012, according to a report issued last month by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The report found that nearly 30 percent of the 834,463 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars treated at VA hospitals and clinics nationwide have been diagnosed with PTSD. Immediately after the bomb attack, a commander asked … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Nov. 13, 2012) The average incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) among service members deployed in Middle East conflict zones has increased 117% in recent years, mainly due to proximity to explosive blasts. Therapeutic exposure to a high oxygen environment was hoped to minimize the concussion symptoms resulting from mild TBI, but hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) treatment may not offer significant advantages, according to an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website at http://www.liebertpub.com/neu. A prospective trial conducted at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine evaluated the benefits of HBO2 therapy on post-concussion symptoms in 50 military servicepersons who had suffered at least one combat-related mild TBI. The study, "The Effect of Hyperbaric Oxygen on Symptoms Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury," compared the results following 30 sessions of either HBO2 (2.4 atmospheres absolute pressure) or sham treatment over an 8-week period. George Wolf, MD and Leonardo Profenna, MD, U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (San Antonio, TX), David Cifu, MD and William Carne, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond), and Laura Baugh, MD, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The first treatment breakthrough of its kind for survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke will be published in the December 1 issue of the journal CNS Drugs[1], with an accompanying editorial[2]. To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-effective-treatment-for-traumatic-brain-injury-reported-by-institute-of-neurological-recovery-even-years-after-injury-179121491.html The ground-breaking study provides clinical evidence that, for the first time, chronic neurological dysfunction from stroke or traumatic brain injury can rapidly improve following a single dose of a drug that targets brain inflammation, even years after the initial event. There are 5 million people living in the U.S. after TBI and 4.5 million living in the U.S. after stroke, and this is the first treatment of its kind ever available for TBI or stroke survivors after hospital discharge. The observational study[1] of 629 patients, conducted over the course of nearly two years, documents a diverse range of positive effects, including statistically significant rapid clinical improvement in motor impairment, spasticity, cognition, etc. in the stroke group, with a similar pattern of improvement seen in the traumatic brain injury (TBI) group. The study involved 617 patients treated an average of 42 months after stroke and 12 patients treated an … Continue reading →

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - Nov 11, 2012) - Many veterans of the United States armed forces who have traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder also have undiagnosed, chronic vision problems, according to two studies presented today at the 116th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, jointly conducted this year with the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology. New Recognition of What Traumatic Brain Injury Can Mean for Veterans' Vision In a study conducted at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., researchers found that vision problems in veterans with mild TBI are much more common and persistent than previously recognized, with 67 percent of the 31 patients studied reporting chronic vision disorders. Though none of the affected veterans had suffered direct eye wounds, their vision continued to be impaired more than a year after they endured the injuries that caused their TBI. The vision problems most frequently reported by the veterans in the study were convergence, which is the ability to focus both eyes simultaneously in order to read or see other nearby objects, and sensitivity to light. Veterans' ability to readjust their focus when moving their gaze between far and near objects, known as accommodation, was also reduced. … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2012) Sanford-Burnham researchers discovered that the protein appoptosin prompts neurons to commit suicide in several neurological conditions -- giving them a new therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. Dying neurons lead to cognitive impairment and memory loss in patients with neurodegenerative disorders-conditions like Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. To better diagnose and treat these neurological conditions, scientists first need to better understand the underlying causes of neuronal death. Enter Huaxi Xu, Ph.D., professor in Sanford-Burnham's Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research Center. He and his team have been studying the protein appoptosin and its role in neurodegenerative disorders for the past several years. Appoptosin levels in the brain skyrocket in conditions like Alzheimer's and stroke, and especially following traumatic brain injury. Appoptosin is known for its role in helping the body make heme, the molecule that carries iron in our blood (think "hemoglobin," which makes blood red). But what does heme have to do with dying brain cells? As Xu and his group explain in a paper they published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience, excess heme leads to the overproduction of reactive oxygen species, which include cell-damaging free radicals … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) Seizures during childhood fever are usually benign, but when prolonged, they can foreshadow an increased risk of epilepsy later in life. Now a study funded by the National Institutes of Health suggests that brain imaging and recordings of brain activity could help identify the children at highest risk. The study reveals that within days of a prolonged fever-related seizure, some children have signs of acute brain injury, abnormal brain anatomy, altered brain activity, or a combination. "Our goal has been to develop biomarkers that will tell us whether or not a particular child is at risk for epilepsy. This could in turn help us develop strategies to prevent the disorder," said study investigator Shlomo Shinnar, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Shinnar is a professor of neurology, pediatrics and epidemiology and the Hyman Climenko Professor of Neuroscience Research at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City. Seizures that occur during the course of a high fever, known as febrile seizures, affect 3 to 4 percent of all children. Most such children recover rapidly and do not suffer long-term health consequences. However, having one or more prolonged febrile seizures in childhood is known to increase the … Continue reading →