Category Archives: Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

Overview A spinal cord injury damage to any part of the spinal cord or nerves at the end of the spinal canal often causes permanent changes in strength, sensation and other body functions below the site of the injury. If you've recently experienced a spinal cord injury, it might seem like every aspect of your life will be affected. Many scientists are optimistic that advances in research will someday make the repair of spinal cord injuries possible. Research studies are ongoing around the world. In the meantime, treatments and rehabilitation allow many people with a spinal cord injury to lead productive, independent lives. Your ability to control your limbs after spinal cord injury depends on two factors: the place of the injury along your spinal cord and the severity of injury to the spinal cord. The lowest part of your spinal cord that functions normally after injury is referred to as the neurological level of your injury. The severity of the injury is often called "the completeness" and is classified as either of the following: Additionally, paralysis from a spinal cord injury may be referred to as: Your health care team will perform a series of tests to determine the … Continue reading →

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Supported by a new $800,000 National Science Foundation grant, Florida State University College of Medicine Professor Yi Ren is studying the immune response to spinal cord injuries and how cellular functions contribute to paralysis and organ dysfunction. While instant paralysis is an obvious point of fear in spinal cord injuries, a great deal of the damage actually takes place after the initial trauma. Most of the research being done by scientists who focus on spinal cord injuries is about trying to prevent the secondary injury from happening, said Ren, a biomedical scientist and immunologist. During a severe spinal cord injury, the myelin sheath that protects nerves and axons the central nervous systems primary transmission lines shatters into tiny pieces. As part of the bodys immune response to such an injury, damaged tissue in the area is filled with macrophages, white blood cells that ingest foreign material. The macrophages job is to act as scavengers and clear myelin debris from the injury site to promote regeneration. Macrophages remain in the injured area for months or even years, which is not necessarily a good thing. By absorbing debris, macrophages help to prevent inflammation and stimulate tissue healing. However, once the … Continue reading →

Boston Business Journal InVivo slashes staff and ousts science chief - Boston Business Journal Boston Business Journal The restructuring follows a setback in the Cambridge biotech's effort to win approval for a spinal cord injury treatment. and more » Read the original post: InVivo slashes staff and ousts science chief - Boston Business Journal - Boston Business Journal … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON, D.C. The day before the U.S. would lose two more American lives during combat operations in Iraq, President Donald Trump signed an emergency spending bill, the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act, that authorizes more than $2 billion for the Veterans Choice Program. At present, almost one-third of VA appointments are referred to the private sector, up from fewer than 20 % in 2014. The VAs annual budget of about $180 billion will provide $2.1 billion in funding for veterans health care in the community at government expense. While the new law will draw attention largely because of the urgency in which it replenished the VAs healthcare budget a budget that has been depleting faster than expected since 2014 the new law also addresses other critical priorities aimed to improve the VA: A bilateral exchange program for employeesin VA and the private sector to cross-trainproviders in both health care domains The development of training and annualperformance standards for employees andpreparing them for future leadership roleswithin the Department The establishment of promotion tracksdesigned to retain employees with specialexpertise Provisions to attract transitioning servicemembers and recently graduated collegestudents into employment opportunities withthe VA Training on recruitment and retention bestpractices for human … Continue reading →

After spinal cord injury or stroke, axons originating in the brain's cortex and along the spinal cord become damaged, disrupting motor skills. Now, according to new findings published today inNeuron, a team of scientists at Boston Children's Hospital has developed a method to promote axon regrowth after injury. The team developed a therapeutic cocktail of molecules, which they administered tomicewith either a spinal cordinjuryor stroke and observed that the mice were able to recoverfine motor skills. "In our lab for the first time we have a treatment that allowed the spinal cord injury and the stroke model to regain functional recovery," says senior author on the paper Zhigang He, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He's team designed the mixture by building off some of their earlier collaborative work with Dr. Joshua Sanes group at Harvard, in optical nerve injury, when they had observed that the combination of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) and a protein called osteopontin (OPN) promoted nerve regrowth and vision improvement in optically-injured mice. Regaining function after spinal cord injury To investigate whether this combination would influence functional recovery, the team studied amouse modelof spinal cord injury to one side of the body. … Continue reading →

Advancements in the safety features on football helmets and other gear have changed best practices for first responders treating athletes on the sidelines. St. Anthonys Hospital emergency-room doctors on Friday trained paramedics and emergency medical technicians from West Metro Fire Rescue on assessing and stabilizing injured high school and college football players. Theyll do it again on Thursday The training focused on head and spinal-cord injuries. We havent seen an uptick in this type of injury, West Metro Fire spokeswoman Ronda Scholting said. NFL concussion procedures have changed, so the protocols were introducing to paramedics, medics and EMTs are on how to best package a patient, whether from high school to the professional level. St. Anthony Hospital sees 60,000 patients per year and 1 percent of those are categorized as sports-related injuries. Not all 600 of those patients are admitted for suspected brain trauma or concussion, but the start of the contact-sports season and updates to the safety features of football equipment means new approaches to treatment. Football helmets now have air bladders in them that cushion the head, St. Anthony clinical nurse specialist Shawn Zembles. You can remove the helmet guard to access the face and neck without removing … Continue reading →

A chemical cocktail could restore movement for people crippled after suffering spinal cord injuries, suggests new research. Scientists say the mixture of three molecules could potentially be given therapeutically to patients to aid in their recovery after serious injury. After spinal cord injury or stroke, axons originating in the brains cortex and along the spinal cord become damaged, disrupting motor skills. Now, according to findings published in the journal Neuron, a team of scientists at Boston Childrens Hospital in the United States has developed a method to promote axon regrowth after injury. They administered the therapeutic cocktail of molecules to mice with either a spinal cord injury or stroke and observed that the mice were able to recover fine motor skills. Study senior author Doctor Zhigang He, of Boston Childrens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said: In our lab, for the first time we have a treatment that allowed the spinal cord injury and the stroke model to regain functional recovery. His team designed the mixture by building on earlier work from Dr. Joshua Sanes group at Harvard who focused on optical nerve injuries. Sanes observed that the combination of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) and a protein called osteopontin … Continue reading →

TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Parents can now check their child's spine for possible signs of scoliosis with the new app SpineScreendeveloped by Shriners Hospitals for Children. Available for free on the App Store and Google Play, SpineScreen detects curves as the cell phone is moved along a child's back, giving parents a quick, informal way to regularly monitor their child's spine. Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine that can restrict movement and in some cases lead to other serious medical conditions. It is most commonly diagnosed between 10 and 15 years of age, when children grow rapidly. Some cases, however, can go undetected. At this point in a child's life, fewer vaccinations are required, so they may see a doctor less often. Since early detection is crucial, Shriners Hospitals physicians encourage parents to download the free SpineScreen app and check kids as part of their back-to-school routine each year. "Because there is often no known cause, monitoring for scoliosis is an important part of a child's ongoing health care," says Amer Samdani, M.D., chief of surgery for Shriners Hospitals for Children Philadelphia. He adds, "It is a progressive condition, so early detection is key. At Shriners … Continue reading →

by Gabrielle Mays, FOX 11 News Lucas Lindner near the dugout at Sunday, Aug. 13 Brewers game. (Photo courtesy Scott Paulus with Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club) MILWAUKEE (WLUK) -- Sunday marked another milestone for a Fox Valley man as he threw the first pitch at Sunday's Brewers game. With a baseball in Lucas Lindner's right hand, he moved his arm back and threw the ball right into the catcher's mitt with ease. The crowd cheered and Lindner couldn't help but smile. He suffered from a severe spinal cord injury after he crashed his truck last year. The crash left him paralyzed from the chest down. Thanks to an experimental stem cell treatment called AST-OPC1, Lindner gained mobility in his arms, hands and fingers. The procedure took place at the Medical College of Wisconsin. FOX 11 did a story on Lindner last year. "Throwing out the first pitch at a Major League game is not something I could have imagined a year ago. I want to show everyone that there is hope that spinal cord injury patients can regain function. I am looking forward to going back to school, pursuing my dream of working in the IT field and living independently … Continue reading →

GREEN BAY, Wis. Brett Goode had quite an eventful week. Returning to the Green Bay Packers was only part of it. Last Monday morning, the veteran long snapper an unsigned free agent despite spending the past nine seasons with the Packers was still unemployed when his wife, Monica, went into labor with the couples second child. Shortly after daughter Blakely arrived, Goode was on a plane from his home in Arkansas for a tryout with the New York Jets, one of a number of NFL teams that had called expressing interest in him. Like, the baby was born and I left, Goode said Sunday, following his first practice with the Packers. My wife is a good wife. Goode said he had been monitoring the Packers special teams issues kicker Mason Crosby had missed six of 11 field-goal attempts during the teams annual Family Night practice on Aug. 5 and was still hoping for a call from his old team, as hed received at the end of training camp last year. Sure enough, the phone rang late in the week and by Saturday, Goode was on his way back to Green Bay, having signed to compete with rookie Derek Hart for … Continue reading →