Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

Experts on both sides all agree, at the end of life, he will suffer a fatal respiratory infection but dont agree how that should be managed A severely brain-injured young man is at the centre of an important High Court dispute between doctors and his parents over whether he should be resuscitated if his condition deteriorates. The parents are opposing the HSEs application for orders giving doctors discretion not to administer various treatments, including CPR, if his condition deteriorates further. The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, who described the case as of major importance, may visit the man in hospital. Because the man is a ward of court, the judge must decide whether the orders sought are in his best interests. The parents are in court for the case, which opened on Tuesday. A senior doctor involved in the mans care said she discussed his situation on many occasions over years with his parents, in line with Medical Council guidelines. Those discussions were often difficult, and the parents did not agree the man was minimally conscious or did not communicate. Because she considered the discussions had reached an impasse, she recommended an application be made last … Continue reading →

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The long-term healthcare costs for patients suffering from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) with evidence of motor impairment are significantly higher than those of the general population, according to new research presented by SanBio, Inc., a scientific leader in regenerative medicine for neurological disorders. The findings from the study Economic Burden of Illness for Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury Resulting in Chronic Motor Impairment, were presented at the World Congress of Brain Injury in New Orleans on Friday, March 31. Costs of TBI patients were highest during the acute phase of the injury. However, even in the second year post injury, TBI patients with evidence of motor impairment incurred excess costs of nearly $27,000 per patient. These costs appeared to stabilize at a rate of approximately four times higher than those of the control group costs. Higher costs of TBI patients were associated with elevated use of all medical resources analyzed, including inpatient and outpatient services, emergency department visits, and physical therapy and rehabilitation services, as well as prescription drug use. Patients with traumatic brain injuries incurred significantly greater costs than the control group across the board for medical services, said Dr. Damien Bates, Chief Medical Officer … Continue reading →

A Castleman Creek Elementary School student airlifted to the hospital after falling and hitting his head. Stephen Adams, KCEN 8:39 AM. CDT April 04, 2017 HEWITT - A Castleman Creek Elementary School student was airlifted to the hospital after a head injury Monday afternoon. The 8-year-old boy tripped and fell, hitting his head on something inside the school, a source confirmed, adding the incident, which was caught on school surveillance camera, was a complete accident. The fall happened early in the school day, and the boy was evaluated at the time of the fall. But, he did not begin showing symptoms of a serious head injury until around lunchtime, at which point an ambulance was called to the school. A medical helicopter was later dispatched and airlifted the boy to a local hospital. The helicopter left the school just before 1:30 p.m. "It's scary how something so simple could have a severe consequence," said Midway ISDSpokesperson Traci Marlin, who expressed her sympathies for the family. Principal Mandy Johnson sent the following email to parents just before 2:00 p.m.: "Early this afternoon, we called for an ambulance for a student suffering symptoms from a head injury. The student was then care-flighted … Continue reading →

Houston Chronicle Stem cells could hold key to treating brain injuries Houston Chronicle In collaboration with Dr. Charles Cox, co-director of Memorial Hermann Red Duke Trauma Institute and lead investigator on UTHealth's traumatic brain injury stem cell trial, the team has found that using a patient's own stem cells appears to dampen the ... Read more here: Stem cells could hold key to treating brain injuries - Houston Chronicle … Continue reading →

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, and there are several important things to keep in mind when it comes to treating and recovering from serious brain injuries. What is a traumatic brain injury (TBI)? Any injury that affects the function or structure of the brain is a traumatic brain injury (TBI). They range in severity from a very mild short-term alteration of consciousness to a devastating loss of function and even death. How does a traumatic brain injury affect the brain and body? What changes might someone experience as the result of a TBI? The overall effects of a traumatic brain injury are very dependent on the severity of the injury. Headache, nausea and sensitivity to light and sound are common with concussion, which is a mild TBI. More severe injuries can cause paralysis, speech problems, prolonged coma and instability of cardiopulmonary functions. Is TBI treatable? If so, what are some of the best treatments for TBI? Yes, TBI is treatable. Specific treatments also very much depend on the severity of the injury. In the immediate aftermath of a severe TBI, treatment is focused on prevention of swelling and preventing early complications of the brain injury and the state of … Continue reading →

WTTV CBS4Indy Veterans hope to see alternative treatment for PTSD covered by insurance WTTV CBS4Indy INDIANAPOLIS- It's estimated there are more than 300,000 combat veterans in the U.S. who need help for symptoms from traumatic brain injury. Additionally, 600,000 veterans suffer with PTSD. There is a treatment available and even though it's not ... PTSD: Battling an 'Invisible' EpidemicWebMD (blog) all 60 news articles » Follow this link: Veterans hope to see alternative treatment for PTSD covered by insurance - WTTV CBS4Indy … Continue reading →

Since 2000, more than 339,000 service members have been diagnosed with the signature wound from the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan: traumatic brain injury. Called the invisible wound of war, traumatic brain injuries are hard to diagnose and difficult to treat because of the diseases symptom diversity that can include anything from depression and anxiety to balance and memory issues. There are so many forms of comorbidity associated with TBI that it makes for a very complex case presentation, said Dr. Scott Engle, director of Fort Hoods Intrepid Spirit Center, which held an open house March 24. Imagine all these symptoms put into a blender and mixed up. It would be very difficult to pull out one and just treat one symptom by itself alone. The Intrepid Spirit Center uses a multidiscipline, holistic and integrated treatment plan to treat not just one symptom, but the whole person. Recent data, Engle said, confirms that the center and its programs are making a difference in helping Soldiers manage depression and post-traumatic stress. These results are a function of our warriors commitment, the support of their spouses and Family and the care of our incredibly dedicated staff who bring their best every … Continue reading →

A drug developed during World War II as an antidote for a chemical warfare agent has been found to be effective at suppressing a neurotoxin that worsens the pain and severity of spinal cord injuries, suggesting a new tool to treat the injuries. The neurotoxin, called acrolein, is produced within the body after nerve cells are damaged, increasing pain and triggering a cascade of biochemical events thought to worsen the injury's severity. Researchers have now found that the drug, dimercaprol, removes the toxin by attacking certain chemical features of acrolein, neutralizing it for safe removal by the body. The findings, detailed in a paper published online this month in the Journal of Neurochemistry, involved research with cell cultures, laboratory animals and other experiments. Dimercaprol may be an effective acrolein scavenger and a viable candidate for acrolein detoxification, said Riyi Shi, a professor of neuroscience and biomedical engineering in Purdue University's Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. An extensive body of evidence exists suggesting the toxic nature of acrolein and its pathological role in a variety of disease processes, prompting the use of acrolein scavengers as a new therapeutic approach for alleviating … Continue reading →

Potential drugs and targets for brain repair Science Daily ... which can be exploited to develop new strategies for treatment. Second, they identify several new drugs, each already approved for clinical use, whose therapeutic potential for brain injury repair can now be explored. Finally, they provide a proof ... and more » Read the original here: Potential drugs and targets for brain repair - Science Daily … Continue reading →

Brain injuries are a danger in many sports, but for none more than football and its most profitable enterprise, the National Football League. The NFL is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a concussion-lawsuit settlement and has poured tens of millions into research on measuring and preventing head trauma. Now some scientists are using an NFL-backed technology to examine blood samples for proteins that have been shown to correlate with concussion and other injuries. One of the most intriguing of these proteins, which could help create better tests for traumatic brain injury, is called neurofilament light or, as its known for short, NFL. Thats right, a protein called NFL may wind up helping the NFL address its most vexing medical problem. It's just a remarkable coincidence, said Kevin Hrusovsky, chief executive of Quanterix, a company that has received $800,000 in grant money from the NFL through the league's Head Health Challenge partnership with GE. Quanterix's technology allows users to zero in on molecules with such precision that Hrusovsky likened it to being able to see a grain of sand in 2,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. That is crucial, because only tiny amounts of the proteins, referred to as biomarkers, dribble … Continue reading →