Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is an injury that can have little to far reaching complications. It is estimated that in 2006, 46,000 children in the U.S. were taken to the hospital as a result of traumatic brain injuries. Each year, in the US, its estimated 1.7 million adults will sustain a TBI. It occurs when an external force or blow is sustained to the skull. It may be a single episode or a cumulative result of several. It can happen at the playground, contact sports, motor vehicle collision of both low and high velocity and abrupt acceleration and deceleration type injury to the head. It is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Symptoms can include headache, vomiting, nausea, lack of motor coordination, dizziness, difficulty balancing, light-headedness, blurred vision or tired eyes, ringing in the ears, bad taste in the mouth, fatigue or lethargy, and changes in sleep patterns. Cognitive and emotional symptoms include behavioural or mood changes, confusion, and trouble with memory, concentration, attention, or thinking abnormalities. At present, I have 11 patients in my clinic who suffer from TBI; six from motor vehicle collisions, three from falls on the ice and two from snowboarding. Dr. Mark … Continue reading →

Siblings focus on families of brain injury victims 10:58am Thursday 16th January 2014 in News By Haydn Lewis, Education reporter THE bond between three sisters has led to a new study in to how the families of brain injury victims want their loved ones to be treated. A study carried out by Prof Celia Kitzinger from the department of sociology at the University of York and her sister, Prof Jenny Kitzinger, at Cardiff Universitys school of journalism asked if families, who have severely brain-injured relatives, would consider terminal sedation. Their sister, Polly, was severely brain injured in a car accident in 2009. The pair are co-directors of the York-Cardiff Chronic Disorders of Consciousness Research Centre (CDoC) which explores the social and ethical challenges of the vegetative and minimally conscious state. Prof Celia Kitzinger said: At the moment it is legal to allow people to die by withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration, but that can mean watching a long, slow death which many relatives just cannot bear the thought of. If a court is going to take a decision to allow someone to die, why not do it in a way thats less prolonged for the patient, or, if the patient … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- We use both sides of our brain for speech, U.S. researchers report in a study they say alters previous conceptions about neurological activity. Researchers at New York University, writing in the journal Nature, say the findings offer insights into addressing speech-related inhibitions caused by stroke or injury and lay the groundwork for better rehabilitation methods. Many scientists have held that both speech and language are lateralized -- in other words, we use only one side of our brains for speech, which involves listening and speaking, and language, which involves constructing and understanding sentences. Not so, say the NYU researchers. "Our findings upend what has been universally accepted in the scientific community -- that we use only one side of our brains for speech," senior study author Bijan Pesaran of the university's Center for Neural Science said. "In addition, now that we have a firmer understanding of how speech is generated, our work toward finding remedies for speech afflictions is much better informed." The researchers examined brain functions of patients suffering from epilepsy with specialized electrodes placed directly inside and on the surface of the brain, a method that coincided with their medical treatment. "Recordings … Continue reading →

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem, especially among male adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 24, and among elderly people of both sexes 75 years and older. Children aged 5 and younger are also at high risk for TBI. Perhaps the most famous TBI patient in the history of medicine was Phineas Gage. In 1848, Gage was a 25-year-old railway construction foreman working on the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Vermont. In the 19th century, little was understood about the brain and even less was known about how to treat injury to it. Most serious injuries to the brain resulted in death due to bleeding or infection. Gage was working with explosive powder and a packing rod, called a tamping iron, when a spark caused an explosion that propelled the 3-foot long, pointed rod through his head. It penetrated his skull at the top of his head, passed through his brain, and exited the skull by his temple. Amazingly, he survived the accident with the help of physician John Harlow who treated Gage for 73 days. Before the accident Gage was a quiet, mild-mannered man; after his injuries he became an obscene, obstinate, self-absorbed man. … Continue reading →

By Greg Vellner 21st Century News Service We havent withdrawn our plan, said Ian Yannuzzi, executive director, Delaware Valley Residential Care, the firm that hopes to run a two-story, 16,000-square-foot center on the south side of Street Road, east of the Southampton Post Office. Project plans were to have been reviewed this week by the Upper Southampton Township Planning Commission, but were scratched by DVRC at the last minute so it could pursue approval instead through the township zoning hearing board. We need to go a different route, said Yannuzzi, who added the delay will not impede on the project timetable. We dont want to put the cart before the horse. No date has been set yet for review by the zoning board. The proposed TBI facility has met with growing community opposition over patient housing in proximity to nearby homes. Plans call for construction of five 4,200-square-foot single-story buildings to house a total of 40 patients on a narrow 6.5-acre tract near Kenneys Spirited Eatery, 1134 Street Road. Dozens of irate township residents Monday night packed the hearing board meeting and shouted-down the project expressing concern over patient proximity to nearby homes and fearing negative impact on property value. … Continue reading →

Jan. 15, 2014 We use both sides of our brain for speech, a finding by researchers at New York University and NYU Langone Medical Center that alters previous conceptions about neurological activity. The results, which appear in the journal Nature, also offer insights into addressing speech-related inhibitions caused by stroke or injury and lay the groundwork for better rehabilitation methods. "Our findings upend what has been universally accepted in the scientific community -- that we use only one side of our brains for speech," says Bijan Pesaran, an associate professor in NYU's Center for Neural Science and the study's senior author. "In addition, now that we have a firmer understanding of how speech is generated, our work toward finding remedies for speech afflictions is much better informed." Many in the scientific community have posited that both speech and language are lateralized -- that is, we use only one side of our brains for speech, which involves listening and speaking, and language, which involves constructing and understanding sentences. However, the conclusions pertaining to speech generally stem from studies that rely on indirect measurements of brain activity, raising questions about characterizing speech as lateralized. To address this matter, the researchers directly examined … Continue reading →

A hypoxic-ischemic injury is the result of a lack of oxygen, which causes damage to brain cells and the spinal cord. This type of brain injury is most common before, during, or after childbirth, with statistics citing that two to four of 1,000 births result in hypoxic-ischemic injury. But while this type of brain injury is relatively rare, it can cause permanent brain damage and even death. While the exact causes of hypoxic-ischemic injury are unknown, some studies have linked placenta issues, maternal blood pressure problems, maternal uterine rupture, and umbilical cord complications to the injury. Symptoms include seizures and other signs of brain damage following childbirth. While hypoxic-ischemic injury has been studied frequently, a definitive way to prevent it or detect it before it does permanent damage to the newborn is still unknown. Because hypoxic-ischemic injury shares symptoms with other childbirth-related issues, it can be very difficult to diagnose in a timely manner. Approximately 15 to 20 percent of newborns with hypoxic-ischemic injury will die shortly after birth. Of those that survive the injury, about 25 percent will face lifelong neurological problems such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, epilepsy, and learning disabilities. Go here to read the rest: Hypoxic- … Continue reading →

A mother has filed a claim seeking $23 million from the Tucson Unified School District after her son fell from a slide at Fruchthendler Elementary and suffered a brain injury. While the extent of the injury is unknown at this time, the mother says TUSD was negligent in maintaining the playground equipment, in supervising students on the playground, in caring for the boy after the incident and in failing to obtain professional care. An administrative claim was sent to the Tucson Unified School District on behalf of Danette and Trevor Pahl regarding the Aug. 8 incident. According to the claim, which is frequently a precursor to a lawsuit, the then-9-year-old Trevor fell about 5 feet from the slide, striking the left side of his head, his arm and wrist on a piece of cement embedded in the play area during afternoon recess. Rather than seek medical attention, the school called Danette Pahl, who then took her son to a hospital, where it was discovered that the fourth-grader had suffered a broken wrist and a life-threatening injury to his head and brain, attorney Ron Mercaldo said. While Trevor went back to school three weeks later with special provisions, he has received … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise January 9, 2013 (BRONX, NY) Roadside bombs and other blasts have made head injury the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Most combat veterans recover from mild traumatic brain injury, also known as concussion, but a small minority experience significant and long-term side effects. Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, in cooperation with Resurrecting Lives Foundation, are investigating the effect of repeated combat-related blast exposures on the brains of veterans with the goal of improving diagnostics and treatment. Mild traumatic brain injury can cause problems with cognition, concentration, memory and emotional control as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Einstein scientists are using advanced MRI technology and psychological tests to investigate the structural and biological impact of repeated head injury on the brain and to assess how these injuries affect cognitive function. Right now, doctors diagnose concussion purely on the basis of someones symptoms, said Michael Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of Einsteins Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center. We hope that our research will lead to a more scientifically valid diagnostic techniqueone that uses imaging to not only detect the underlying brain injury but reveal … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise When an MRI scan uncovers an unusual architecture or shape in a childs brain, its cause for concern: The malformation may be a sign of disease. But deciding whether that odd-looking anatomy is worrisome or harmless can be difficult. To help doctors reach the right decision, Johns Hopkins researchers are building a detailed digital library of MRI scans collected from children with normal and abnormal brains. The goal, the researchers say, is to give physicians a Google-like search system that will enhance the way they diagnose and treat young patients with brain disorders. This cloud-computing project, being developed by a team of engineers and radiologists, should allow physicians to access thousands of pediatric scans to look for some that resemble their own patients images. The project is supported by a three-year $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health. Were creating a pediatric brain data bank that will let doctors look at MRI brain scans of children who have already been diagnosed with illnesses like epilepsy or psychiatric disorders, said Michael I. Miller, a lead investigator on the project. It will provide a way to share important new discoveries about how changes … Continue reading →